28 October 2019
Hygiea asteroid could turn out to be the smallest dwarf planet yet
.... This last requirement is what stops objects like Ceres from being classified as a full blown planet. ... but it has now been constrained to be just over 430 km. For comparison Ceres diameter is close to 950 kilometres in size, whilst Pluto, the is it ...
13 March 2015
Ceres breakthrough: NASA's Dawn is first probe to visit a dwarf planet
... similar to what we do on Mars than what we did with Vesta. Space.com: Could Dawn's measurements reveal whether Ceres has a subsurface ocean, as some researchers suspect? Russell: That might be difficult for us. But we have instruments to measure...
01 July 2015
Ceres, Dawn, mysterious bright spots, and exploring the solar system
... interstellar voyages , our own solar system is still in many ways uncharted territory for humanity. And it’s not as if Ceres hasn’t surprised scientists before. In the beginning of 2014, for example, we detected emissions of water vapor from several...
25 August 2015
NASA’s Dawn gets up close and personal with Ceres: stunning conical mountain revealed in detail
...immediately brings home its attraction. And the mission to Ceres has already been plenty interesting. Marc Rayman, Dawn .... What particularly makes the mountain stand out is just how small Ceres truly is – just 952 km across. Only time will tell ...
10 September 2015
Ceres Occator crater: bright spots as you’ve never seen them before
...surface. Conspiracy theories suggesting the possibility of remnants of an alien civilisation were also fuelled by this strange feature on Ceres – but that is typical for any large-scale, unexpected astronomical discovery. Meanwhile, you can read more...
March 2016
Searching for water in the Solar System
...presence of hydrated salts in the famous bright spots of the Occator crater. These observations suggest an abundance of water in Ceres readily accessible to future explorers. Other objects in the main belt also display water on their surface directly...
