Ceres South Polar Region - Vatican Observatory

The Dawn spacecraft is orbiting Ceres at its final altitude of 385 km (240 mi). The Dawn Twitter feed has been awash recently with images of the surface of the dwarf planet.

View of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on December 10, showing an area near the dwarf planet's south pole. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

View of Ceres, taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on Dec. 10, 2015 showing an area near the dwarf planet’s south pole. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

The image above shows an area near Ceres’ south polar region. The shadows appear elongated because from this perspective, so close to Ceres’ south pole, the sun is never very high in the sky.

Visualization of the Sun only a few degrees above the horizon of Ceres. Image created with NASA's Eyes on the Solar System app.

Visualization of the Sun only a few degrees above the Ceres’ horizon. Image created with NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System app.

On Dec. 18, 2015, the Dawn twitter feed posted that the spacecraft had begun intensive observations of Ceres.

Update: Today I begin my intensive observations of #Ceres at this lowest altitude (~240 mi) pic.twitter.com/yUWFsPaxj9

— NASA's Dawn Mission (@NASA_Dawn) December 18, 2015

These views of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Dec.10 shows an area in the southern mid-latitudes of the dwarf planet. They are located at approximately 38.1 south latitude, 209.7 east longitude, around a crater chain called Gerber Catena. Many of the troughs and grooves on Ceres were likely formed as a result of impacts, but some appear to be tectonic, reflecting internal stresses that broke the crust. A slightly different view of the same area, taken in the same sequence (Figure 1), is also available. The two views were combined to make a 3-D anaglyph (Figure 2). The spacecraft took these images in its low-altitude mapping orbit (LAMO) from an approximate distance of 240 miles (385 kilometers) from Ceres.

View of Ceres southern mid-latitudes, taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on Dec. 10, showing an area around a crater chain called Gerber Catena. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Today, on the final day of 2015, the Dawn Twitter feed posted a video showing some of the amazing images the Dawn spacecraft has returned from Ceres over the past year.