NASA is busy this week with new images returned from Ceres, Pluto, and Saturn's Moon Dione. First up, Ceres:
"New images of dwarf planet Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, show the cratered surface of this mysterious world in sharper detail than ever before. These are among the first snapshots from Dawn's second mapping orbit, which is 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above Ceres.
The region with the brightest spots is in a crater about 55 miles (90 kilometers) across. The spots consist of many individual bright points of differing sizes, with a central cluster. So far, scientists have found no obvious explanation for their observed locations or brightness levels."
Cassini's extended mission continues to show us the Saturn system:
"The rugged landscape of Saturn's fracture-faced moon Dione is revealed in images sent back by NASA's Cassini spacecraft from its latest flyby. Cassini buzzed past Dione on June 16, coming within 321 miles (516 kilometers) of the moon's surface."
New Horizons has returned the first color movies from the Pluto system as well as the best pictures yet of the surfaces of both Pluto and Charon:
"In a long series of images obtained by New Horizons' telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) May 29-June 19, Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, appear to more than double in size. From this rapidly improving imagery, scientists on the New Horizons team have found that the "close approach hemisphere" on Pluto that New Horizons will fly over has the greatest variety of terrain types seen on the planet so far. They have also discovered that Charon has a "dark pole" – a mysterious dark region that forms a kind of anti-polar cap."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2015, @08:12AM
Have we finally begun dumping our garbage offworld?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2015, @08:32AM
Yep, starting with all the anonymouscowards. See you on Ceres, brother.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday June 25 2015, @07:03AM
No, the politicians are still here.