The ongoing exploration of Ceres has passed into “extended mission” territory, reports Marc Rayman on Planetary.org:
Following the conclusion of the prime mission, the adventurer began its “extended mission” of performing more Ceres observations without missing a beat. We described in April some of what Dawn can do as it continues investigating many of the mysteries there. Dawn’s extension allows for even better measurements with the gamma ray and neutron detector of the nuclear radiation emanating from Ceres. This is like taking a longer exposure of the very faint nuclear glow, yielding a brighter, sharper picture that reveals more about the atomic constituents down to about a yard (meter) underground. The spacecraft is taking more stereo photos, continuing to improve the topographical map it created from four times higher. Scientists also are taking advantage of this opportunity to study more geological features with the visible and infrared mapping spectrometers, providing important insight into Ceres’ mineralogical inventory.
Gotta love the picture.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA
Marc says the white spots are sodium carbonate.
