Now for something different!
A slightly forgotten mission and a somewhat hushed space body!
In a picture that has been taken by NASA's Down Probe from about 450 km in height, we see perforated terrain on the rim of the dwarf planet Ceres. It is evident that the slopes of these larger craters in the escarpment slid the material and settled on their beds. That is why in the crater we can see a mild elevation.
Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Ceres is a dwarf planet located in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, slightly closer to Mars' orbit. It is also the only dwarf planet within the orbit of Neptune. Composed mosly of rock and ice it is the only object in the asteroid belt known to be rounded by its own gravity although 4 Vesta is a close candidate.
When discovered in 1801 it was thought to be a planet, but some fifty years later Ceres was declared as an asteroid.
The NASA spacecraft Dawn entered orbit around Ceres on 6 March 2015 and brought us first high resolution photos of Ceres. Two distinct bright spots, seen in the picture below, stood out inside a crater leading to different speculations such as presence of water, ice or outgassing which would indicate some activity inside Ceres.
Ceres in natural color - NASA - Dawn, May 2015
On 3 March 2015, a NASA spokesperson said the spots are consistent with highly reflective materials containing ice or salts, but that cryovolcanism is unlikely.
Dawn is also an interesting topic and a wonderful piece of equipment. It is a space probe launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres.
Dawn has achieved alot! It is the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies, the first spacecraft to visit either Vesta or Ceres, and the first to visit a dwarf planet, arriving at Ceres in March 2015, a few months before New Horizons flew by Pluto in July 2015. Dawn will operate until its hydrazine fuel runs out, possibly in the second half of 2018. Afterwards, the spacecraft is expected to remain in a stable orbit around Ceres.
