Dawn Survey Orbit Phase, First orbital phase Options

[Phil Stooke]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/new...wn20110801.html

Phil

[elakdawalla]

Cool rotation movie!! What a cool mini-planet!
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogaller...ia_id=104094441
I am at JPL now so ironically I can't do my usual quick image processing magic. I will plan to decompose this movie into separate frames and also make an animates GIF later today -- but would be very happy if someone else beat me to it!

[Phil Stooke]

The map is at the Photojournal now.

Phil

[ugordan]

Whoa, groovy!

[Explorer1]

False color... interesting splashes.

[Juramike]

Well, now we know what the image release policy is going to be in the future...like MESSENGER with a selected processed image of the day.
(But no raw images like MER or Cassini). Ah well.

[Explorer1]

There will still be PDS releases, right?

[ugordan]

This image nicely showcases the equatorial grooves as well as curious dark spots in the dark hemisphere. I wonder what they're all about. Almost look like ejecta spray, but clumpy and more sporadic.

[Juramike]

Press release on images presented: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/news/dawn20110801.html

[ugordan]

There will still be PDS releases, right?

Yes. I think that's pretty much mandatory for a U.S. mission. Not sure how it will play out with foreign instruments, but I wouldn't expect problems in this case.

[MarkG]

Anyone know where/when the recording of the press conference will be available?

[hendric]

Missed the press conference. Is this a close-up of a potential lava flow? (the darker area in the top right)

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/mul...a/pia14324.html

[volcanopele]

One major thought I had coming out of the presser was on the comments regarding the formation of the grooves. Now, Chris Russell stated that one idea is that the grooves formed shortly after the SP impact when Vesta was initially compressed in the N-S direction and then rebounded, forming grooves at the equator. But I think there is another possibility: Upspinning. It is possible that the impact sped up Vesta's rotation. Upspinning would cause the equatorial radius to expand and the polar radius to contract, resulting in extension at the equator and compression at the mid- to high-latitudes. Similar upspin/despin/re-orientation scenarios have been discussed for Iapetus (despinning to explain equatorial ridge) and Enceladus (upspinning and polar wander to explain south polar boundary, equatorial fractures, etc.)

[john_s]

Complicating the picture is the possibility that the impact also changed the pole orientation, which may be quite likely as the missing mass associated with the impact crater is now aligned with the spin axis (shades of Enceladus again). A changed spin axis would produce stresses comparable to a spin-up or spin-down about the existing axis.

Excuse me if this was discussed at the press conference, which I missed...

John

[siravan]

In the Enceladus case, change of the axis of rotation can be explained based on polhode phenomenon. But that needs an energy dissipation mechanism, which for Enceladus is based on the tidal lock (as also the possible 'ocean'). But for a free solid body like Vesta, what is the dissipation mechanism?