NASA’s Dawn sent back the clearest images of Ceres

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft sent back a dwarf planet by far the sharpest images of Ceres. According to physicist organizational networks reported on January 27, this image is far from the space outside of the 237,000 kilometers back to Earth. Dawn is about to become the first man to visit Ceres detector, it will open a new era of human exploration of space.

“We know little about the enormous solar system, thanks ‘Dawn’ No mission, many mysteries will crack.” NASA Headquarters, director of the Planetary Science Division of Jim Green said.

The new image resolution than NASA Hubble Space Telescope in 2003 and 2004, 241 million kilometers away from Ceres at the back of 30% higher image resolution. Get such a high resolution is through the solar system because Dawn is approaching Ceres, and the Hubble telescope remains fixed in Earth orbit.

A white spot new Ceres image display, with white spots Hubble image to see consistent, but its nature remains unknown. When the spacecraft near Ceres, it’s back to the camera system will transmit better quality image. March 6, Dawn will enter orbit Ceres and photographed details of the picture, by measuring the reflection from Ceres back light changes, can constitute the planet’s surface to reveal.

“We have seen some had not seen the Ceres area and details, for example, there are several in the southern hemisphere as a whole darkened area, may be the crater Data ‘Dawn’ number will help us to better understand this particular star. Ceres is lifted our exploration details and features of appetite. “mission chief scientist Carol Ruimeng De said.

950 km in diameter, Ceres is an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the largest celestial bodies. 1801 astronomers discovered it after the Roman goddess of agriculture and grain to name names. It was originally identified as a planet, after being corrected to an asteroid in 2006 was eventually identified as a dwarf planet. Some scientists believe the dwarf planet’s underground deep in the oceans of the world in the past, under its icy mantle, perhaps retains liquid water.