New images of the dwarf planet Ceres. Nasa unveils pictures of the pyramid at Ceres Pictures of the planet ceres

As it gets closer to Ceres, Dawn makes more and more discoveries. Following bright spots on the surface of a dwarf planet spacecraft discovered a pyramid-shaped mountain. The new photos were taken from a distance of 4,400 kilometers.

Just six months ago, Ceres was observed as a few pixels. Dawn is now approaching the dwarf planet as close as possible. By December of this year, the spacecraft will be at an altitude of only 360 kilometers above the surface of Ceres, which is below the flight altitude of the International space station over the Earth, writes the British newspaper Daily Mail.

It is noteworthy that the pyramidal mountain rises above a relatively flat surface. In terms of height, this hill is comparable to the Mont Blanc massif between France and Italy. Mont Blanc, whose height reaches 4810 meters, is the most high mountain in Europe.

Another photo shows a few more bright spots. The diameter of the largest detected light spot is about nine kilometers. Scientists are inclined to believe that these areas are formed by reflection sunlight salt and ice.

Dawn saw the first mysterious spot a few months ago. As they approached the planet, their number began to grow. Researchers have already counted up to eight spots. In fact, there may be even more of them.

Other images show areas with many lines and craters scattered across the surface of Ceres, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Past activity on its surface is also evidenced by landslides and destroyed structures of natural origin.

Dawn, arriving in time for Ceres on March 6, 2015, is the first spacecraft to orbit two separate celestial bodies in Solar system... Prior to that, he studied the protoplanet Vesta.

Dawn will remain in its current orbit until June 30th. In early August, he and Ceres will be separated by a distance of only 1,450 kilometers.

Specialists of the mission of the spacecraft "Dawn" have published a number of new images of the dwarf planet Ceres. On them we can see the well-known Occator crater, young craters, as well as in Ceres color.

Crater Occator. Photo NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA

The first image shows the well-known Occator crater, which caught the attention of scientists with a bright spot when the spacecraft was just approaching the dwarf planet. The crater is 92 kilometers wide and 4 kilometers deep.

Studies have shown that the bright material is nothing more than deposits of magnesium sulfate heptahydrate or the so-called "Epsom salt". Scientists suggest that Ceres has a kind of subsurface layer that is rich in frozen liquid saturated with salts. From time to time, as a result of certain processes, possibly both external and internal, part of the material of this layer falls on the surface of the dwarf planet.

Takela and Kozobi craters. Photo NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA

The second image shows us young craters on the dwarf planet known as Takela (left) and Kozobi (right). The craters are easy to distinguish on the planet's surface, as they are sharply contoured. On the slopes of Takela, bright material is visible, which appears to be analogous to the bright matter in the Occator crater.

Ceres in color. Photo NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA

The last image shows us Ceres in color, as a person would see her when he flew to the planet. The image was created by scientists at the German Air and Space Center using Dawn images taken in 2015 using a red, green and blue filter.

Ceres is the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt, which has received the status of a dwarf planet. The pursuit of the discovery of this planet began in 1781, at the time when the planet Uranus was discovered, located in the very region of space in space that belonged to the Titius-Bode rule. Titius's rule (a German scientist) proves the regularity of the increase in the increase in the radii of the orbits of the planets near the Sun. Some time later, this rule turned out to be inaccurate, and the discovery of Uranus in the same place gave rise to an avid "hunt for planets" in the circle of astronomers of past centuries.

Discovery history

Later, in 1800, an international group of scientists - astronomers "Heavenly Guard" was founded. All day and night, she conducted observations of space in space between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, that is, in the area where that not yet discovered planet should have been located. Ceres in this area was discovered by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801. At first he mistook it for a comet, but still noticed that it had some peculiarities. Throughout the year, other scientists tried to fix the existence of this asteroid planet, but only on the last day of 1801 did they manage to confirm its existence. With this, the Titius-Bode rule acquired justice again. Giuseppe Piazzi himself called the asteroid planet "Ceres", although before that it was pronounced as "Ferdinand's Ceres."

In 1802, Ceres was classified as an asteroid. The largest cosmic body in the main asteroid belt has a diameter of 950 kilometers, has the shape of a sphere, which has arisen due to the presence of its own gravity in Ceres, and six thousand times less mass than that of the Earth, and at the same time makes up a third of the total mass of objects asteroid belts.

According to the research of scientists, after the asteroid Ceres acquired a spherical shape, the processes of gradual displacement of the heaviest rocks to the central part began to take place on it. The result of this displacement was the formation of a stone core. Water ice is outer shell, which has a thickness of about 100 kilometers, which exceeds the reserves of fresh water on Earth.

Research

Ceres is one of the main participants, with a good perspective, projected space development. First of all, this is due to the fact that it stores a huge supply of fresh water and this fact may serve as the fact that there is an opportunity to create life.

From the point of view of colonization, Ceres is of great interest. In the second phase of space exploration, they plan to colonize Ceres. At the first stage, they expect to colonize space objects located relatively close to the Earth, Moon, Venus, Mars, Mercury.

Distant future

Ceres is located between the gas giants and the planets of the "terrestrial group", has good conditions, allowing it to serve as an ideal transit point for the creation of space bases on it. The negative factors of this planet include low gravity and lack of magnetic field, which is a negative factor for human health.

Animation of the flight of the DAWN spacecraft from Vesta to Ceres

On July 1, the main mission of the Dawn probe came to an end. NASA is not going to shut down the device like. But even further than Ceres, Dawn will not fly as expected. Previously, the project team planned that the probe, after studying the Ceres planetoid, would fly further - first to the Sun, entering a safe orbit for itself, and then to the asteroid Adeon. The last point of the plan was calculated for May 2019.

But now experts have come to the conclusion that the study of Ceres is worth continuing - the scientific value of the current mission will be higher than a visit to Adeona. Scientists believe that Dawn will be able to get interesting data for science when the planetoid passes through perihelion - the point of its orbit that is minimally distant from the Sun. The project team could not come to a common opinion on how to extend the probe's mission. On July 1, a post appeared on the NASA website with information about Dawn's flight to Adeon. A little later, the post was removed, and representatives of the agency announced that the publication of this material was a mistake. Now the site contains information that the probe remains in the orbit of Ceres.



Photos of the Ceres spots sent by Dawn in March 2016 (Photo: NASA)

Long road to Ceres

The history of the Dawn probe dates back to 1992, when project lead Christopher Russell introduced the spacecraft's efficient ion thrusters. They cannot develop such significant thrust as rocket engines, but they work much longer. Such engines were originally planned to be installed on artificial satellites Earth, but Russell decided to put them on a device that will go to the asteroid belt of the solar system.

The authors of the project received three refusals from the leadership of NASA, but in 2001 the mission still received approval. As part of the mission, the Dawn probe was supposed to visit two largest object asteroid belts: Vesta, the largest asteroid in the solar system, and Ceres, a dwarf planet. According to Russell, when using chemical rocket engines to West and Ceres, two vehicles would have to be launched - there simply would not be enough fuel to visit two objects in the asteroid belt at once. But since the project team decided to use ion thrusters, the entire program could be completed using just one apparatus.

Why did you decide to choose Vesta and Ceres for the study? The fact is that scientists considered them to be the oldest objects in the solar system. Their study would help clarify some aspects of the origin of the planets and find out what processes led to the formation of the solar system in its current form. Moreover, both objects are different from each other. Vesta is a rocky world without a lot of liquid or gases. The surface of Vesta is covered with meteorite craters. Ceres differs from Vesta in its lower density; earlier it was suggested that its surface may be covered with ice, and an ocean of liquid water may be hidden under the surface. In addition, astronomers have noticed mysterious bright spots on the surface of Ceres. But from the Earth it was impossible to understand what these formations are, and what their nature is. Ceres is the only object in the solar system with such properties.

Dawn mission successes

The probe was launched into space in 2007. The launch of the spacecraft outside the Earth was carried out using a Delta II launch vehicle. The device approached Vesta in 2011.

Antony Crater (southern hemisphere of Vesta). Photo: NASA

After spending a year in the orbit of the asteroid, the probe went to Ceres. Dawn entered the orbit of the planetoid in March 2015. In October 2015, the spacecraft entered its lowest orbit.

As they approached the planetoid, Earth scientists received more and more high-quality images of Ceres and its surface. But it was possible to find out the nature of the spots only after the closest approach to the planetoid. Up to this point, one group of scientists have suggested that the spots are the release of water ice to the surface. Other experts argued that this is the release of salts to the surface.

After the probe sent the latest data from the study of sunspots with high-resolution photographs of these formations, the situation cleared up. Most likely, the stains are composed of magnesium sulfate, chemical compound with a large albedo. By the way, not so long ago, scientists worked on these spots.

Scientists have found that there are large reserves of water ice under the surface of the planetoid. Scientists claim that in the early stages of its evolution, Ceres was a warm world, and an ocean splashed on its surface. Unfortunately, over time, this world began to cool down. And since the planetoid did not have its own heat source (like Europe, for example), the water froze.

What's next?

The Dawn probe will continue to explore the planetoid while in orbit. There are more questions about the origin of Ceres, about the structure of its surface layers and bowels than answers. And scientists hope to get answers to at least some of these questions.

The Dawn spacecraft continues its leisurely exploration of the asteroid Ceres. So, on Friday, October 23, he carried out the next activation of the ion propulsion system in order to move to the fourth and final scientific orbit around this asteroid belt object. Currently, the apparatus has successfully completed its two-month research work at an altitude of 1470 kilometers from the surface of Ceres and transmitted a variety of information to Earth.

In the new orbit, Dawn will continue to map Ceres, and the device will descend into it for more than seven weeks. The total height above the surface will be only 380 kilometers. Sometime in mid-December 2015, Dawn will begin collecting scientific information, including images of Ceres at 35 meters per pixel.

Specialists of the Dawn mission presented a new image of mysterious spots on the asteroid Ceres for everyone to see. To date, this image is the closest and most detailed look at the Ocator crater, in which these mysterious features are located. The image resolution is 140 meters per pixel.

September 10, 2015

From the orbit in which the spacecraft was located, the shapes of the brightest central spot, as well as other features of the crater itself, are already very clearly visible. But, since these spots are still much brighter than the underlying surface, the specialists in the presented image actually combined two frames: one frame was correctly exposed to study the spots, and the other in order to see the bottom of the crater.

“Thanks to Dawn Station, we were able to transform a distant strange spot into a complex, beautiful and breathtaking landscape right in front of our eyes. Very soon scientific analysis will show geological and chemical nature this mysterious and hypnotic extraterrestrial landscape. ”- Mark Reiman, Chief Engineer, Dawn Mission.

Currently, the spacecraft has completed two eleven day cycles of mapping the surface of Ceres, and on September 9, 2015 began the third. In total, over the next two months, Dawn will map the surface six times, and each cycle consists of 14 orbits. By mapping each orbit slightly at a different angle, scientists will eventually be able to create stereo images and fully 3D representations.