NASA scientists using the framing camera aboard the Dawn spacecraft have created the first color map of the dwarf planet Ceres.
This color map of Ceres was created from images taken by the Dawn spacecraft during its initial approach to the dwarf planet. Images taken using blue, green and infrared spectral filters were combined to create the map; the filters were assigned to color channels in reverse order, compared to natural color. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA /MPS / DLR / IDA.
Discovered by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801, Ceres is the only dwarf planet in the inner Solar System and the largest object in the asteroid belt.
It is located 280 million miles (415 million km) from the Sun and revolves around it in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter.
Ceres is 590 miles (950 km) in diameter, and comprises approximately one third of the mass of the asteroid belt.
The surface of the dwarf planet is heavily cratered, as expected, but appears to have fewer large craters than planetary researchers anticipated.
It also has two very bright spots in its northern hemisphere. According to the scientists, the pair is located in a crater 57 miles (92 km) wide. The origins of these spots remain unknown.
“The bright spots continue to fascinate the science team, but we will have to wait until we get closer and are able to resolve them before we can determine their source,” said Dr Chris Russell of the University of California, Los Angeles, who is the principal investigator for the Dawn mission.
This is an artist’s impression of the dwarf planet Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
“More detail will emerge after the spacecraft begins its first intensive science phase on April 23, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,500 km) from the surface,” added Dr Martin Hoffmann of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany.
“This dwarf planet was not just an inert rock throughout its history. It was active, with processes that resulted in different materials in different regions. We are beginning to capture that diversity in our color images,” Dr Russell said.
The results were presented today at the 2015 General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna, Austria.
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