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Ceres' shape is controlled mainly by gravity and spin, with only a 3% departure from hydrostatic equilibrium. Its best-fit shape is a triaxial ellipsoid with dimensions a = 483.1 km, b = 481.0, km and c = 445.9 km, with c being the north-south axis and a and b the semimajor and semiminor equatorial axes.
Ceres is saturated with impact craters.Many have a central pit or bright spot. In the first batch of 17 names approved by the IAU, craters north of 20° north latitude had names beginning with A–G (with Asari being the furthest north), those between 20° north and south latitude beginning with H–R, and those further south beginning with S–Z (with Zadeni being the furthest south).
The geology of the dwarf planet, Ceres, was largely unknown until Dawn spacecraft explored it in early 2015. However, certain surface features such as "Piazzi", named after the dwarf planets' discoverer, had been resolved.[a] Ceres's oblateness is consistent with a differentiated body, a rocky core overlain with an icy mantle.
The upper diagram shows Ceres's orbit from top down. The bottom diagram is a side view showing Ceres's orbital inclination to the ecliptic. Lighter shades indicate above the ecliptic; darker indicate below. Ceres follows an orbit between Mars and Jupiter, near the middle of the asteroid belt, with an orbital period (year) of 4.6 Earth years. [2]
Occator / ɒ ˈ k eɪ t ər / is an impact crater located on Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, that contains "Spot 5", the brightest of the bright spots observed by the Dawn spacecraft. It was known as "Region A" in ground-based images taken by the W. M. Keck Observatory on ...
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Dawn 's images led to widespread reports in the media about the bright spots, including in news sources, [22] astronomy magazines, [23] and science magazines. [24] An informal NASA poll during May offered the following ideas for the nature of the spots: [ 25 ] ice, volcanos, geysers, salt deposits, rock, or other.
In geology, a facies (/ ˈ f eɪ ʃ ɪ. iː z / FAY-shih-eez, US also / ˈ f eɪ ʃ iː z / FAY-sheez; same pronunciation and spelling in the plural) [a] is a body of rock with distinctive characteristics. [1]