Science Made Simple: What Is Earth’s Energy Budget?
Earth’s energy budget. Not a familiar concept? Maybe you’re scratching your head, wondering, what is that? Don’t worry. You’re not the only one. The good…
Ceres
Mystery Solved: NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Close-Up of Ceres Reveals Origin of Mysterious Bright Regions on Dwarf Planet
Data from NASA’s recent Dawn mission answers two long-unresolved questions: Is there liquid inside Ceres, and how long ago was the dwarf planet geologically active?…
Do-It-Yourself Dwarf Planet Exploring, Creating Little Bits of Ceres in Labs
Ceres, the dwarf planet between Mars and Jupiter, is a mysterious and exotic world, with its complicated history and recent geologic activity. Since scientists can’t…
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Has Gone Silent
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has gone silent, ending a historic mission that studied time capsules from the solar system’s earliest chapter. Dawn missed scheduled communications sessions…
Close-Up View Of The Cerealia Facula Bright Spot On Ceres
Bright surface features on the dwarf planet Ceres known as faculae were first discovered by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft in 2015. This mosaic of one such…
Dawn Mission Continues to Gather Data in Home Stretch
Pasadena Conference to Include New Insight into Dwarf Planet Ceres As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft prepares to wrap up its groundbreaking 11-year mission, which has included…
Scientists Reveal Dramatic New Views of Occator Crater on Ceres
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft reached its lowest-ever and final orbit around dwarf planet Ceres on June 6 and has been returning thousands of stunning images and…
Dawn Reveals Surprisingly High Concentrations of Organic Material on Ceres
A new analysis of data from NASA’s Dawn mission suggests that organic matter may exist in surprisingly high concentrations on the dwarf planet’s surface. Last…
Astronomers Discover Recent Changes on the Surface of Ceres
Observations of Ceres have detected recent variations in its surface, revealing that the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system is a dynamic body…
Dawn Spacecraft Views Kwanzaa Tholus on Ceres
What is a tholus? A tholus is a type of small mountain. These images show such a feature on dwarf planet Ceres called Kwanzaa Tholus….
Mysterious Bright Spots Suggest Geologic Activity on Ceres
If you could fly aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, the surface of dwarf planet Ceres would generally look quite dark, but with notable exceptions. These exceptions…
Dawn Mission Discovers Possible Ancient Ocean Remnants on Ceres
Two new studies from NASA’s Dawn mission shed light on Ceres, revealing that the dwarf planet may have had a global ocean in the past….
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Celebrates 10 Years in Space
Ten years ago, NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft set sail for the two most massive bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: giant asteroid Vesta…
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Views Pongal Catena on Ceres
This newly released image from NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft shows the northeastern rim of Urvara Crater on Ceres, helping to shed light on the nature of…
Dawn Spacecraft Views Kerwan Crater on Ceres
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft captured this image of the Kerwan crater (the largest crater on Ceres) from an altitude of about 915 miles. The 16-mile-wide (26-kilometer-wide)…
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Successfully Observes Ceres at Opposition from Sun
On April 29th NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft successfully observed Ceres at opposition, taking images from a position exactly between the sun and Ceres’ surface. Mission specialists…
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Reveals Evidence for Ground Ice on Dwarf Planet Ceres
A newly published study in the journal Nature Geoscience reveals evidence that dwarf planet Ceres retains a significant amount of water ice, showing how ice…
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Links Temporary Atmosphere of Ceres to Solar Activity
New observations from NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft reveal the hydrogen content of Ceres’ surface and link the temporary atmosphere to solar activity. Astronomers have long thought…