Ceres from the Dawn probe at a distance of about 145,000 km – Feb. 4, 2015. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSIThe Dawn mission draws ever nearer to the Dwarf Planet Ceres. In this animation created from images taken on Feb. 4, 2015, you can clearly see large impact craters – one with a nice central peak.. The enigmatic white splotches still do not have enough resolution to make out clearly what they are; personally, I’m hoping they are water jets, like on Europa and Enceladus.
When Dawn was at Vesta in 2011, Ceres remained far-off, and mysterious. Today, as Dawn draws nearer to Ceres, the veil of mystery covering Ceres is slowly being drawn away. Rosetta is flying alongside comet 67P/C-G, New Horizons is nearing Pluto; I must admit to a growing feeling of enuii. Oh, I AM excited about Ceres and Pluto, but… except for diving into the Sun, we’ve now been to all the major bodies our Solar System. What next?
I would very much like to see Uranus and Neptune orbiters.
