Dawn's last mission extensions at Ceres, From XMO3 to EOM |
Dawn's last mission extensions at Ceres, From XMO3 to EOM |
Feb 1 2017, 02:37 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 544 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
This thread will cover all final phases of the Dawn mission, the end of which is not certain at this point.
XMO3 was suppose to be the final orbit, but now plans have changed and it will move into a new higher altitude and higher phase orbit soon. This will be XMO4. An interesting monthly journal for January details the plan: Dawn Journal 31 January 2017 |
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Feb 4 2017, 06:09 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 495 Joined: 12-February 12 Member No.: 6336 |
Ahuna mons have turned out to be what is called one "ice volcano"
(Used in lack of a better word in american English I guess, my native language got a word for underground water that instantly freeze as it enter the surface in the wínter which would have been very suitable here.) Now why only a single such feature? The American Geophysical Union put some thought on that matter and suspect there's other ones that have flattened out and started a search for potential other sites. |
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Feb 4 2017, 08:16 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 716 Joined: 3-January 08 Member No.: 3995 |
Now why only a single such feature? The American Geophysical Union put some thought on that matter and suspect there's other ones that have flattened out and started a search for potential other sites. Perhaps the raised area adjacent to Ahuna is such a feature: The elevation of this area seems to be anomalous compared to the surrounding topography. It does not appear to be associated with any crater/ basin rims or central peaks. Its association with Ahuna seems to imply a relationship of some kind. The surface of this feature is heavily cratered, which means it has been around much longer than Ahuna. Either this feature is an area of general uplift associated with the formation of Ahuna, or it is an older volcanic edifice of the upwelling that produced Ahuna (i.e. 'ancestral Ahuna') that has subsequently suffered subsidence and erosion. Or perhaps both processes were in play. Finally, it is possible it presence there could be purely coincidental. |
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