Astronomy Picture of the Day
    


Fly Over Dwarf Planet Ceres
<< Yesterday 10.06.2015 Tomorrow >>
Credit & Copyright: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA, MPS/DLR/IDA, DLR, ESO
Explanation: What would it look like to fly over dwarf planet Ceres? Animators from the German Aerospace Center recently took actual images and height data from NASA's robotic Dawn mission -- currently visiting Ceres -- to generate several fascinating virtual sequences. The featured video begins with a mock orbit around the 950-km wide space rock, with the crater featuring two of the enigmatic white spots soon rotating into view. The next sequences take the viewer around the Ceres' north and south poles, and then over a limb of the dark world highlighting its heavily cratered surface. Here, terrain height on the asteroid belt's largest object has been digitally doubled, while an artificial star field has been added in the background. The Dawn spacecraft will likely remain an unusual artificial moon of Ceres long after its mission concludes.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
 < June 2015  >
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930




Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Based on Astronomy Picture Of the Day

Publications with keywords: Ceres
Publications with words: Ceres
See also:
All publications on this topic >>