New Ceres Images Show Bright Craters
Craters with bright material on dwarf planet Ceres shine in new images from NASA's Dawn mission.
Craters with bright material on dwarf planet Ceres shine in  new images from NASA's Dawn mission.In its  lowest-altitude mapping orbit, at a distance of 240 miles (385 kilometers) from  Ceres, Dawn has provided scientists with spectacular views of the dwarf planet.Haulani Crater, with a diameter of 21 miles (34  kilometers), shows evidence of landslides from its crater rim. Smooth material  and a central ridge stand out on its floor. An enhanced false-color view allows  scientists to gain insight into materials and how they relate to surface  morphology. This image shows rays of bluish ejected material. The color blue in  such views has been associated with young features on Ceres.DOWNLOAD VIDEO Unveiling Ceres"Haulani perfectly displays the  properties we would expect from a fresh impact into the surface of Ceres. The  crater floor is largely free of impacts, and it contrasts sharply in color from  older parts of the surface," said Martin Hoffmann, co-investigator on the  Dawn framing camera team, based at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System  Research, Göttingen, Germany.The crater's  polygonal nature (meaning it resembles a shape made of straight lines) is  noteworthy because most craters seen on other planetary bodies, including  Earth, are nearly circular. The straight edges of some Cerean craters,  including Haulani, result from pre-existing stress patterns and faults beneath  the surface.A hidden  treasure on Ceres is the 6-mile-wide  (10-kilometer-wide) Oxo  Crater, which is the second-brightest feature on Ceres (only Occator's central  area is brighter). Oxo lies near the 0 degree meridian that defines the edge of  many Ceres maps, making this small feature easy to overlook. Oxo is also unique  because of the relatively large "slump" in its crater rim, where  a mass of material has dropped below the surface. Dawn science team members are  also examining the signatures of minerals on the crater floor, which appear  different than elsewhere on Ceres."Little Oxo may  be poised to make a big contribution to understanding the upper crust of  Ceres," said Chris Russell, principal investigator of the mission, based  at the University of California, Los Angeles.Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission  Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery  Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in  Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace  Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency  and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the  mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, visit:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/missionMore information about Dawn is available at the following  sites:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.govhttp://www.nasa.gov/dawn