What are these white spots on the dwarf planet Ceres? – Aftenposten

At the end of next week goes spacecraft Dawn as the very first orbit a dwarf planet. And the project team has its first big surprise.

The spacecraft Dawn was launched in September 2007 and has had an adventurous journey. The goal was the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and more specifically fight asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres.

Vesta is one of the largest asteroids in our solar system and has a diameter of 525 km. The asteroid was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers in 1807, but was not much more than a “stain” in the room before the probe Dawn let themselves orbiting Vesta in July 2011 and studied the asteroid in detail through 14 months. The spacecraft took over 30,000 photographs of the surface – and when it finally continued his journey, took the farewell with this video:

See asteroid Vesta in a very special way

The probe Dawn explored the asteroid Vesta in 14 months, and took goodbye with this video presentation.

Looking for a dwarf planet

Late in 2012 disengaging Dawn from Vestas court and continued on toward the dwarf planet Ceres. Friday March 6 goes into court and dishes cameras toward the surface to finkartlegge planet over many months.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, with a diameter of 950 km. Not only is the greatest, but its mass amounts to almost one third of all mass in the belt of millions of small and large celestial objects. Ceres was discovered by Guiseppe Piazzi in Palermo 1 January 1801. Piazzi thought he had discovered a new planet in the solar system, but Ceres must therefore be content with the term dwarf planet, like Pluto.

Ceres is named after the Roman goddess of fertility and agriculture. Reality will probably prove to be very far away from this. The surface is probably a mixture of water ice and hydratmineraler as carbonates and clays. Perhaps there is liquid water below the surface. It makes it exciting for the probe which is now just off target.

Store, mysterious, white spots

In recent weeks, while Dawn came nearer and nearer dwarf planet, grew a little mystery bigger and bigger . From long distance caught namely spacecraft Dawn steadily clearer images of an inexplicable, white spot in the surface landscape. Now it is clear that it is not only one but two such spots. Both are located in a larger crater or pool slightly north of the equator.

– Maybe we see an area marked by the former volcanic activity, said researcher Chris Russel Dawn team. Another possibility is that there simply is shiny ice reflect sunlight much stronger than the surroundings. Or is it something completely different?

The answer we get possibly within a few days.

Read also:

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Published: 27.feb. 2015 9:44 p.m.