Ceres: Finally new images from Dawn. "Dawn Glimpses Ceres' North Pole"

About time. Only north pole, so cant see the alien civilization under the glowing dome in that crater yet! Can't help but think they are hiding something but probably not =)
It's an exciting year for space exploration, first this and Pluto soon.

Sadly not much to see after this as we nearly stopped sending out probes =(.

Dawn Glimpses Ceres' North Pole

After spending more than a month in orbit on the dark side of dwarf planet Ceres, NASA's Dawn spacecraft has captured several views of the sunlit north pole of this intriguing world. These images were taken on April 10 from a distance of 21,000 miles (33,000 kilometers), and they represent the highest-resolution views of Ceres to date.

Found another link and this one has individual images. AND PLUTO!

New views of three worlds: Ceres, Pluto, and Charon

This week we've been treated to new views of three worlds: Ceres, Pluto, and Charon. As New Horizons is still quite far away from Pluto and Charon (more than 100 million kilometers away), they are mere dots. But these dots are the first color images of Pluto and Charon from New Horizons, taken by the Ralph Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC).

a reply to: Xeven

Awesome pictures. Just one more week, and it will be at a close enough distance to really start gathering data and take some hi-resolution pictures.

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
a reply to: Xeven

Awesome pictures. Just one more week, and it will be at a close enough distance to really start gathering data and take some hi-resolution pictures.

That's right, and what NASA and Co have been saying all along, all the science begins in a week or so.

Terrific images, so exciting seeing honest to god new worlds in the universe.

Before anyone asks

You might notice on the right side at the beginning of the animation that there are two very bright-toned peaks jutting into space. On Twitter, someone asked me if these were Ceres' two bright spots. I couldn't figure out the answer so I asked the question at unmannedspaceflight.com and user JohnVV quickly responded to say that they were not. The territory visible in the animation is from 50 to 90 degrees north latitude; the bright spots are at 20 degrees north. But don't fear -- we'll get a closer look at the bright spots before too long!

www.planetary.org...

Great, thanks. Looking at the surface, I can't, again, wrap my head around those small craters that are as deep if not deeper, than the large ones...How the heck does that work? Is our universe riddled with gargantuan hollow bases?

a reply to: Xeven

Awesome pics and awesome post. I have nothing science-y to contribute, just wanted to thank you for the post

originally posted by: smurfy

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
a reply to: Xeven

Awesome pictures. Just one more week, and it will be at a close enough distance to really start gathering data and take some hi-resolution pictures.

That's right, and what NASA and Co have been saying all along, all the science begins in a week or so.

The science may begin in a week or so, but it may be a while before the really detailed data and pictures are acquired.

Dawn's original orbit is very high. Over the next few months it will be spiraling into lower and lower orbits, but it won't be at its lowest altitude until December of this year:


Source:
Dawn Journal -- March 31 2015

From your link this image is actually animated to about 1/4 rotation if you look closely the first large crater moving from left to right has two protuberances in similar position to the illuminations we saw previously could these be the location of said illumination? Dawns approach vector has shifted to to the point this should be the location observed now versus the earlier.

Sorry for the static image the animated gif didn't migrate over.

a reply to: bkfd54

I thought that as well, and it could be that large illumination. The sequence starts with it right at the horizon, and it does look in the first 2 frames, that it is an elevated illumination. NASA said that they could possibly catch it but would not get a good pass under the camera for another week or so.

a reply to: bkfd54

Well, there is clearly something in the middle of that crater on the 2nd picture, you can even see its shadow.

Thanks for posting this! It's so nice to see a new view of Ceres!

originally posted by: Xeven
About time. Only north pole, so cant see the alien civilization under the glowing dome in that crater yet! Can't help but think they are hiding something but probably not =)
It's an exciting year for space exploration, first this and Pluto soon.

Sadly not much to see after this as we nearly stopped sending out probes =(.

Where did you hear that? You've got some really wrong information so if I were you I'd question the credibility of your source of that bad information.

Juno arrives at Jupiter orbit next summer.

ExoMars launches in January 2016 and arrives in October 2016

Mars InSight Lander launches in March 2016


OSIRIS-REX Asteroid Sample Return Mission launches on a mission to potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu

PROCYON will do a flyby of near earth binary asteroid 2000 DP107

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: Xeven
About time. Only north pole, so cant see the alien civilization under the glowing dome in that crater yet! Can't help but think they are hiding something but probably not =)
It's an exciting year for space exploration, first this and Pluto soon.

Sadly not much to see after this as we nearly stopped sending out probes =(.

Where did you hear that? You've got some really wrong information so if I were you I'd question the credibility of your source of that bad information.

Juno arrives at Jupiter orbit next summer.

ExoMars launches in January 2016 and arrives in October 2016

Mars InSight Lander launches in March 2016


OSIRIS-REX Asteroid Sample Return Mission launches on a mission to potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu

PROCYON will do a flyby of near earth binary asteroid 2000 DP107

Well, if ever I am happy to be wrong would be on this subject. We should be much further along though. Which ever people move into space will become the true powerful civilization of humanity.

UPDATE! New photos. BRIGHT SPOTSSSSS!

dawn.jpl.nasa.gov...

originally posted by: Xeven
Well, if ever I am happy to be wrong would be on this subject. We should be much further along though. Which ever people move into space will become the true powerful civilization of humanity.

Humanity as a whole is moving into space in different ways according to their interests. For instance China seems focused on the Moon, the US on Mars, Europe on Europa and other icy moons, Japan and Russia on space based infrastructure in Earth orbit and cis-lunar space.

The true powerful civilization will be global in nature. It won't be one nation or another. It will be the people of Earth.

originally posted by: raikata
UPDATE! New photos. BRIGHT SPOTSSSSS!

dawn.jpl.nasa.gov...

And the two below look flat... Like an ice field..

Actually, here : www.jpl.nasa.gov... , it does not seem flat at all. At least to me. I mean the one in the middle does not defo, the one above it might be flat, thus the temperature difference?

originally posted by: raikata
Actually, here : www.jpl.nasa.gov... , it does not seem flat at all. At least to me. I mean the one in the middle does not defo, the one above it might be flat, thus the temperature difference?

Both look flat, and I look a ton of planetary imagery. That said, a closer image may reveal some height difference.

We'll have to wait for Dawn's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer data from these albedo difference anomalies for more precise infrared mapping.

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: raikata
UPDATE! New photos. BRIGHT SPOTSSSSS!

dawn.jpl.nasa.gov...

And the two below look flat... Like an ice field..

They do look flat, but there was an earlier image in which it appeared that the bright spots were still reflecting some light when the floor of the crater seemed to be in darkness, as if the spot was higher than the floor of the crater. There was also a picture that possibly showed the spot in front of the rim of the crater.

I say "appeared" and "possibly" because that was from earlier images, which were not very clear, and may have been misinterpreted, maybe because the brightness of the spots were spilling over into adjacent pixels on the image.

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: raikata
UPDATE! New photos. BRIGHT SPOTSSSSS!

dawn.jpl.nasa.gov...

And the two below look flat... Like an ice field..

Frozen lakes?