For months now everyone has been waiting to catch a detailed glimpse at the dwarf planet Ceres. Once Dawn entered orbit around Ceres, it spent its first month on the dark side of the dwarf planet sending back no images, of course. Now, however, the wait is over and Dawn has sent back one of the sharpest ever looking images of the previously unexplored world and the images will only get better from here.
The images were taken on April 10 from a distance of 21,000 miles and show the planet's north pole. On April 23, Dawn will begin its first science orbit moving in closer to 8,400 miles above the surface when it will begin to collect data.
On May 9, it will move even closer and scientists hope then we will be able to get an even closer look at the mysterious dwarf planet. We are already familiar with the highly reflective craters on Ceres but still don't know exactly what they are and what is causing the reflection. Scientists believe it could be lakes or geysers but thus far nothing is confirmed.
"The bright spots continue to fascinate the science team, but we will have to wait until we get closer and are able to resolve them before we can determine their source," Chris Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement.
The initial pictures have shown that there is more to Ceres than originally thought. While it does have many craters, there are fewer than expected, indicating that it was active. The two bright spots also have different temperatures adding further intrigue to the mysterious spots.
"This dwarf planet was not just an inert rock throughout its history. It was active, with processes that resulted in different materials in different regions. We are beginning to capture that diversity in our color images," Russell added.
These latest pictures come just days after NASA's other dwarf planet probe, New Horizons, snapped the first ever color pictures of Pluto and its largest moon.
With New Horizons approaching Pluto and Dawn continuing to make history at Ceres, the summer is shaping up to be a time of brave new worlds and exploration for researchers and scientists at NASA as they work to learn more about our solar system and its formation, and these latest pictures are just the beginning.
