[ad_1]
The NASA Dawn spacecraft enthuses astronauts with its most detailed images of Ceres, a dwarf planet and one of the largest bodies of the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.
NASA launches Dawn in 2007 to help scientists better understand the development of the solar system. It was the first space probe to study two of the largest bodies of the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres.
Dawn began to orbit Ceres in March 2015, moving closer to the dwarf planet over time. The last orbit of Dawn brought the probe about 22 miles above the surface of Ceres, about 1/10 of its previous distance.
The latest series of photos, which Dawn took late May and early June, offers the clearest images yet of interest to NASA: a huge crater of impact known as the name of Occator, which seems to have significant and shiny deposits of sodium carbonate, a material commonly found in evaporite deposits on Earth.
end of his mission of nearly 11 years. "Last week, Dawn launched its ion engine, perhaps for the last time," NASA said on a space probe blog
Dawn will descend even closer to the salt deposits at the edge of the Occator Crater for capture more pictures. before landing on Ceres and becoming dark for good.
Source link
