A giant pyramid rising among huge craters is one of the many secrets of Ceres.
Ceres, discovered by astronomers in 1801, has a diameter of 950 km. This planet is located in the asteroid belt, which is located between Mars and Jupiter, and is considered the only dwarf planet in the solar system.
A year ago, on March 6, 2015, NASA's Rassvet spacecraft entered orbit around Ceres.
Since then, astronomers have captured many stunning images that open a window into the exciting world of a previously unknown dwarf planet.
“Ceres defied our expectations and surprised us in many ways because of the value of the data we received over a year. We are passionately working on the mysteries that the spacecraft has revealed to us,”said lead mission investigator Carol Raymond of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Among the most mysterious features of Ceres stands out the tall pyramid of Ahuna Mons. The picture was taken at a distance of 46 thousand kilometers from the surface.
As soon as Breaking Dawn entered lower orbit, the form of this mysterious formation attracted special attention. From a distance, Mount Akhuna Mons looked like a pyramid, but upon closer inspection it is a dome with smooth and steep slopes. Recent images taken by Rassvet at 120x zoom have shown a large amount of glittering material on one of its slopes. This is the steepest slope with a height of 5 km.
Scientists have tried to find similar objects on the surface of Ceres, but none of them was as high and clearly marked as this mountain. It amazed, confused and overwhelmed the scientists.
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“No one expected mountains like Ahuna Mons to exist on Ceres,” said Project Science Leader Chris Russell of the University of California, Los Angeles. "We still can't figure out how it formed."
Occator crater is located 670 kilometers northwest of Akhun Mons, in the center of which about 10 bright spots with the same high reflectivity were found. It is not yet clear at this point whether the sparkling material in the center of the crater matches the material found at Akhuna Mons.
“This is a very large dwarf planet, and it will take quite a few orbital revolutions before these objects can again be seen by the Dawn cameras,” said the chief designer of the Dawn spacecraft, Mark Reiman.
Rassvet is currently in its lowest orbit, 385 km from the surface.
Voronina Svetlana