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Dawn Drops To 1470km Orbit, Snaps Sharper Pictures of Ceres

Posted by Soulskill on from the pretty-pictures dept.

An anonymous reader writes: NASA's Dawn spacecraft, after an extensive series of high orbits around Ceres, has now dropped to just 1,470 kilometers over the dwarf planet's surface. It has begun an 11-day process to map the entirety of Ceres, which it will repeat several times over the next couple months. Its lower orbit now allows photo resolution of ~140 meters per pixel, and it has sent back some great images. "Engineers and scientists will also refine their measurements of Ceres' gravity field, which will help mission planners in designing Dawn's next orbit — its lowest — as well as the journey to get there. In late October, Dawn will begin spiraling toward this final orbit, which will be at an altitude of 230 miles (375 kilometers)."

3 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Is this a joker? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Why so Ceres?

  2. Mis-parsed the headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I thought it said "Dow drops 1470" and had a minor arrhythmia.

  3. NASA can't get to the moon, let alone "outside" by Thing+1 · · Score: 1, Funny

    The Earth is provably flat; level water proves it. Moonlight makes things colder (it's warmer in moonlight's shadow), unlike sunlight, so it's not reflected sunlight. A lunar eclipse has been witnessed with the sun also in the sky; this is impossible if the Earth is a ball.

    NASA has been proven to lie. Why trust liars? They employ graphic artists to "wow" us.

    Look through the strongest telescope you can; the planets are a bright light. It's only through NASA's "you have no access" devices that we can see higher resolution paintings. (Did you know the Vatican's telescope is named Lucifer?)

    The ISS "space walk" footage is performed in a pool in Texas; look carefully at the footage and you can see bubbles arising. There aren't bubbles in space. This woman "on the ISS" permed her hair so we can't see it move around from the turbulence in the "vomit comet" airplane, in which the footage is being filmed; you can hear the airplane engines during said footage.

    See http://ifers.boards.net/ as well as Samuel Rowbotham's "Zetetic Astronomy": http://www.sacred-texts.com/ea...

    --
    I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.