21 Nov 2016

NASA probe has released two new images of the tiny world that reveal the brightest areas in the heart of Occatur and the dwarf planet’s colors perceived by the human eye.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has captured new view of cratered terrain to the side of the dwarf planet.
Dawn was about 1.480 kilometers above Cerere when this image was taken - on Oct. 16 - from its fifth science orbit. The snapshot shows the Occatur Crater - 92 kilometers wide and 4 kilometers deep – with its bright central region and secondary, less-reflective areas that underline recent geologic activity.
The latest research suggests that the bright material in the heart of Occatur is the result of freezing and sublimation process of a saline fluid underground, which means that it turned from ice into vapor.

Dawn scientists also have released an image of Cerere of what the dwarf planet's colors should be perceived by human eye. The image – produced by the German Aerospace Center in Berlin - has been taken during the overflights of the first science orbit in 2015, by applying red, green and blue filters on the framing camera.
On March 6, 2015, since the probe came around the dwarf planet it has already produced hundreds of photos.
After eight months of travelling at an altitude of 385 kilometers, closer than the International Space Station is to Earth, it has reached 1480 km in August.

From 4 November Dawn will proceed to reach the sixth orbit - 7,200 kilometers from the surface – that will hook up in December. The objective to be pursued in the new position will improve the data already collected by subtracting the background noise - generated by the radiation emitted by cosmic rays - to the signal produced by the dwarf planet, making the much more detailed measurements.
The goal will be to refine the data already collected by eliminating the background noise to the signal produced by the dwarf planet, making much more detailed measurements.

One of the most important instruments on board of Dawn mission is VIR-MS “Visible-IR Mapping Spectrometer”, an evolution of VIMS on board of Cassini mission, provided by Italian Space Agency with the scientific collabotration of National Insititute of Astrophysics (INAF).