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

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)."

Comments

The shiny thing is a mountain?

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

That's pretty cool. Maybe it was made with an impact of another object from somewhere else. Does anyone know what the official scientists think it is?