Scientists are delighted to see the famous salt crater of Ceres – Spaceflight Now

Fresh images of NASA's Dawn spacecraft have revealed the brightest salt deposits discovered in a crater on Ceres, the most large object of the asteroid belt.

The new views show the luminous features inside the Occer crater of Ceres, which were first detected on Dawn's approach to the dwarf planet early 2015.

The results Earlier observations of the Dawn crater show that made of sodium carbonate – a type of salt compound commonly found in evaporite deposits on Earth.

Last week, Dawn fired its Xenon-powered ion engine, perhaps for the last time. the large soda ash deposit in the center of the Occator crater, a 92-mile depression dug by an old asteroid or comet collision, according to NASA.

The last pictures show a bright sal patch on a high surface, resembling a mesa or butte.

The salt characteristics found on Ceres are the largest deposits of carbonates ever observed outside the Earth, and possibly Mars, according to scientists

"Acquiring these spectacular images." Said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. "Dawn is like a master artist, adding rich details to another world's beauty in her intimate portrait of Ceres. . "

Scientists believe that salt deposits have been exposed either from a shallow underground reservoir that may have dried and left behind a layer of sodium carbonate, or from a deeper supply of brackish salt-enriched water who has could percolate through fractures of the surface of Ceres.

The jury is still on the origin of brilliant salt deposits, and Dawn's next observations should help scientists determine how features have been formed. New measurements of Dawn's lower orbit will also give researchers data with finer resolution on the internal structure and overall mineral composition of Ceres

"The first views of Ceres obtained by Dawn gave us a JPL, Dawn's Principal Investigator, is the only blinding spot … "Discovering the nature and history of this fascinating dwarf planet during Dawn's long stay in Ceres has been fascinating, and it is particularly fitting that the last act of Dawn is providing new sets of data to test these theories. "

Dawn is In the final months of his mission, the ground controllers pushed the spacecraft into orbit last month, bringing the probe 10 times more near Ceres than ever before.The new elliptical orbit, which brings the probe from just over 33 kilometers above Ceres up to a maximum distance of 4,000 kilometers, will force Dawn to burn more quickly its remaining propellant, which will limit its life.

The spacecraft will remain in orbit around Ceres when it runs out of fuel, but Dawn will complete his mission as he will no longer be able to direct his solar panels to the sun, or direct his antenna towards the Earth.

manufactured by Orbital ATK – now Northrop Grumman – and launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket in September 2007. He went around the giant asteroid Vesta in 2011 and 2012, then headed to Ceres