NASA’s Dawn mission, is mapping dwarf planet Ceres from its high altitude mapping orbit (HAMO), and is returning more detailed images of the surface of this enigmatic world in the heart of the main asteroid belt.
This 6 km (4 mile) tall conical mountain the northern hemisphere of Ceres has a bright, sharply defined perimeter, with almost no debris accumulated at the base.
Ceres’ Lonely Mountain. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDAThis image shows a portion of the northern hemisphere of Ceres. Note the crater with bright rim walls, and a splash pattern. I find the double-crater near the center-top of this image particularly interesting – there is little or no crater rim overlap, so it may have been a double-impact, and there appears to be a central peak in the center of the figure 8 structure.
Dawn HAMO Image 5. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA