As theNASA spacecraft Dawnfinally approaches Ceres , the first mystery for it to search has been unveil ; a rum white spot visible in the effigy beamed back a fortnight ago .
Credit : NASA / JPL Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDADawn ’s observations over the course of an time of day
The position is visible from Earth , or at least from Earth ’s orbit , show up in photographs take by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003 and 2004 . However , these look-alike , like those so far supply by Dawn , are far too small-scale to unveil anything about the pip other than its existence .
Credit NASA.Ceres as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003 - 2004 ( composite persona )
" We do not know what the ashen bit is , but it ’s certainly challenging , " Dawn Mission chief engineer Mark Rayman toldSpace.com . " In fact , it makes you want to transport a spacecraft there to find out , and of course that is exactly what we are doing ! So as Dawn brings Ceres into sharper focus , we will be able to see with keen point what [ the white spot ] is . "
The most obvious explanation is that the spot isice filling the bottom of a volcanic crater . However , no one live why this one slur , at high but not quite pivotal parallel , should be more ice prone than anywhere else on Ceres . A quite recent impact volcanic crater is another potential theory . young crater on the Moon , such asTycho , are much lighter than their surroundings , since the exposed textile has not beendarkened by exposure to solar radiation and micrometeorite .
Randall Munroe has a possibility ,
… but his former fellow worker at NASA remain non - committal .
Dawn will go into orbit around Ceres on March 6 , but will be supply progressively well views of the dwarf planet as it conclude in . Early images were low resolution than what Hubble was able to provide , but from now on we should be able-bodied to see the largest member of the asteroid whang in unprecedented particular .
Before travelling to CERES , Dawnspent clock time orbiting Vesta , the second most massive house physician of the asteroid belt . Although Vesta has no shiny feature of alike size of it to Ceres ’s bit , the charge did revealseveral much smaller snowy spotlight , mostly a few hundred meters across , which may have alike cause .
Before we get a really just look at the great white-hot spot , we should learn whether spots similar to those on Vesta , too small to be resolved by Hubble or in the most recent set of Dawn images , also exist on Ceres .
