REAL LIFE NEWS: CERES MAPS SENT HOME BY DAWN PROBE
by Hazed
The Dawn spacecraft which is currently orbiting Ceres, deep in the heart of the asteroid belt, has sent back the first full maps of the tiny dwarf planet.
They show that Ceres has a surprisingly varied landscape – there is 9 miles of variance between the top of the tallest mountains and the bottom of the lowest craters. The craters are geologically very similar to those found on Dione and Tethys, two of Saturn’s moons which have similar size and density to Ceres, and the features are consistent with an ice-rich crust.
There are plenty of pictures of Ceres at the source link below.
There’s still no answer to the question: what is causing the bright spots, but the most likely answer is either ice left over from an impacting body, or ice formed from dampness within Ceres itself.
The mysterious mound or pyramid which rises about 3 miles from the surface also remains… well… a mystery.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/28/nasa_releases_topological_maps_of_ceres/
