© 2024 WMRA and WEMC
WMRA : More News, Less Noise WEMC: The Valley's Home for Classical Music
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Hello Ceres!

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

In this episode of Our Island Universe, we ponder the secrets of Ceres and anticipate the information we'll receive from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft.

Learn more about Dawn, NASA's first mission to achieve orbit around a dwarf planet.

Transcript:

Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, was discovered in 1801. At the time, it was labeled a planet. However, when objects like Vesta and others were soon discovered in its vicinity, it became clear that Ceres is just the biggest object in a debris field.

Yet, we know very little about Ceres, the largest unexplored world of the inner solar system!

But we are about to get a lot more information about the dwarf planet with the arrival of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft this Spring. Ceres is about 4 times the area of Texas. Given its size and spherical shape, its been intriguing to scientists for a long time. Images from the Hubble Space Telescope, our eyes above the Earth’s atmosphere, have revealed that there are bright spots on Ceres!

As Dawn has begun its approach to this strange new world it has revealed that these spots have become brighter and smaller in size. The best part? We have absolutely no clue what’s going on!

Are these bright spots plumes of water vapor? Is Ceres like the icy moons of the outer solar system? If so, does it harbor a subsurface ocean?

The fun of putting together the puzzle of Ceres is just about to begin and I bet this is just the first of many surprises that Ceres has in store for us.