NASA, citizen scientist cast Ceres features in 3D; bright-spots mystery survives

Striking 3-D detail highlights a towering mountain, the brightest spots and other features on dwarf planet Ceres in a new video from NASA’s Dawn mission.

Dawn is now moving into its third mapping orbit of Ceres, which will bring it only 900 miles from the surface of the dwarf planet. “We look forward to new, higher-resolution data from the mission’s next orbital phase”, Russell said.

The giant mountain was dark on one side but had bright patches on the other, Metro reports. This makes it about the same elevation as Mount McKinley in Alaska’s Denali National Park, NASA scientists say.

“This mountain is among the tallest features we’ve seen on Ceres to date”, Dawn science team member Paul Schenk, a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston said in a statement. The Occator crater is perhaps Ceres’ most unusual feature, due to the ethereal glow it gives off. Scientists have largely attributed it to the reflection of ice, but it could potentially be reactive salts, while some people may claim it’s the work of aliens. The team seems to be amused and confused how odd it is that it is not linked to a crater and as to why is in the middle of nowhere. “We do not know but, however we might discover out with nearer observations”.

Dawn captured the bright spots at the bottom of the 2-mile-deep Occator crater.

A steep-sloped pyramid-shaped mountain that towers about three miles (five kilometers) above Ceres’ surface.

Scientists from the government agency that is responsible for the United States’ civilian space program, and also the country’s aerospace research and aeronautics, stated that this is very indicative of ice water being present on this planet. The newly explored mountain peak lies 11 levels south, 316 levels east of the crater, within the southeast quadrant of the planet. As Dawn zips into a closer and closer orbit, some mysteries will be solved-like what those bright spots are made of-while more will arise to take their place.

NASA has been busy these days, and they’ve released some fresh goodies from the Dawn mission showing off a flyby of the massive asteroid Ceres. It conducted extensive observations of Vesta in 2011-2012.