Dawn at Ceres Thread

[sal_vager]

Someone needs to send them a dictionary

[Tommygun]

That's no asteroid..... It's a space station!

Any chance outgassing could cause a crater that big?

[Frida Space]

Someone needs to send them a dictionary

Maybe we should ask these two guys...

[Newt]

What is that big spot, you ask?

[Camacha]

A minor planet inside Neptune's orbit without cometary activity is an asteroid. Applying the correct definition rather than whatever the popular perception of it is the exact opposite of sloppy.

By the venerable Phil Plait:

[...] is a concept, not a definition. It’s like “continentâ€Â; we have no definition for itâ€â€it’s more of an idea that helps you categorize things in general terms.

The same goes for asteroids. That piece has more pretty decent points.

[epoca]

Btw, Dawn should have snapped a new pic of Ceres yesterday, and it should be better than Hubble's! Can't wait.

[Newt]

Here we are:

And, the full image, with all the black space:

Edited January 27, 2015 by Newt
added another image

[KerBlam]

That's no moon!

(sorry couldn't resist)

[epoca]

Here's the animation:

[KerikBalm]

All this time I've been waiting.... and.... thats it.... ?

Thats a very boring looking celestial body.

Vesta has these ridges parallel to its rotational plane

Ceres.... its... a disk with a white dot....

I'm sure we'll at least see some crater textureing when it gets closer

[Newt]

I think that there is strong chance that we will see more interesting things when the surface resolution improves. If we were this far from Vesta, it might look, well, pretty much like a grey lump with some craters, too.

This is Vesta, by the way. Please be not confused.

[Streetwind]

Yeah seriously, Dawn won't even enter orbit for another ~1.5 months or so. Of course you can't see much yet... give it some time!

Fun fact, by the way... with an equatorial radius of just under 490 km, Ceres is extremely similar in size to Laythe (500 km equatorial radius). So if you go visit Laythe in stock KSP, that is literally the RL size of Ceres. Minus the oxygenated atmosphere, of course, though it is thought that there may be liquid water hidden underground.

[EDIT] And for reference: this used to be the best image we had of Ceres, courtesy of Hubble, until this week. Go Dawn! Ion drives for science!

Edited January 27, 2015 by Streetwind

[epoca]

Cool comparison of Ceres and Vesta from approx. the same distance.

Note: both of the images have been enlarged 4x.

[Robotengineer]

Can we name that white spot Bowman?

[KerikBalm]

I'm thinking there is more to that spot than just a simple crater.

I'm guessing its compoisition is different than the rest of the surface - though it could be a subsurface layer exposed by a recent impact

[Aethon]

Vesta has these ridges parallel to its rotational plane

And Vesta also had flowing water/mud on it's surface.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=pia19170

[KerikBalm]

ughhh.... that has already been depated in another thread... lets not get into it again...

[epoca]

A fascinating comparison between Ceres and Umbriel (one of Uranus' moons). In case you're wondering, that white spot on Umbriel is an ice deposit located in what is thought to be an impact crater.

[Streetwind]

https://twitter.com/NASA_Dawn/status/563108989412859904

Dawn downlinked new images yesterday. The above tweet says we'll get to see at least one of them soon!

[Frida Space]

Dawn downlinked new images yesterday. The above tweet says we'll get to see at least one of them soon!

Yes, it should be the image taken on Feb 3rd. Should be released today.

[Aethon]

Here it is.

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/dawn-gets-closer-views-of-ceres/index.html#.VNOG9Z3F-Yd

[Robotengineer]

Are we going to get color photos when it enters orbit?

[Scotius]

Judging by photos sent by Rosetta, they will still be...gray Not much color out there to see.

[Robotengineer]

Judging by photos sent by Rosetta, they will still be...gray Not much color out there to see.

Judging from this photo posted earlier in the thread, Ceres has some color, unless it is a false color image.

[Aethon]

Can't one of you computer wizards out there superimpose those colors on the new gif?