An Unusual Mountain on Asteroid Ceres
Explanation:
What created this large mountain on asteroid Ceres?
No one is yet sure.
As if in anticipation of today being
Asteroid
Day on Earth, the robotic
spacecraft
Dawn in orbit around Ceres took the best
yet image of an unusually tall mountain on the Asteroid Belt's largest asteroid.
Visible at the top of the
featured image, the exceptional mountain rises about
five kilometers up from an area that otherwise appears pretty level.
The
image was taken about two weeks ago from about 4,400 kilometers away.
Although
origin hypotheses for the mountain include volcanism, impacts, and plate tectonics,
clear evidence backing any of these is currently lacking.
Also visible
across Ceres' surface are some enigmatic light areas:
bright spots whose origin and composition that also
remain an
active topic of investigation.
Even though Dawn is expected to continue to orbit Ceres, officially dubbed a
dwarf planet, for millions
of years, the
hydrazine fuel used to
point
Dawn's communications
antenna toward Earth is expected to run out sometime next year.
Tonight & tomorrow:
See Venus & Jupiter together
after sunset
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
