This stunning view the cratered surface of dwarf planet Ceres comes from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. Mission scientists believe water ice deposits exist in within some of the craters where parts are in permanent shade.
Cratered Ceres
News
Dawn gets the lowdown on dwarf planet Ceres
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, cruising in its lowest and final orbit at dwarf planet Ceres, has delivered the first images from its best-ever viewpoint. The new images showcase details of the cratered and fractured surface. Dawn is now approximately 240 miles (385 kilometres) above Ceres, which is where it will remain for the rest of its mission.
Picture This
Dawn observes Ceres’ northern hemisphere
News
Ingredients for life revealed in meteorites that fell to Earth
Two wayward space rocks, which separately crashed to Earth in 1998 after circulating in our solar system’s asteroid belt for billions of years, share something else in common: the ingredients for life. They are the first meteorites found to contain both liquid water and a mix of complex organic compounds such as hydrocarbons and amino acids.