LAMO, aka Low Altitude Mapping Orbit Options

[pablogm1024]

I know there are some kicking around. Just hoping for the image of the day to start up again.

They are expected to restart on Monday, January 9th.

pablogm

[pablogm1024]

They are expected to restart on Monday, January 9th.

Indeed, IOTD has restarted here, even if the gallery page does not seem to be updating properly.
Enjoy,
pablogm

[stevesliva]

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageo...p?date=20120116

Interestingly shaped pit or crater lower left.

[Marz]

Today's image is a nice 3-D anaglyph of impact craters from a binary asteroid impact:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageo...p?date=20120124

[stevesliva]

Three releases on the multimedia page that would seem to indicate there will be a release / NASA news item about long-lived ice on Vesta.

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/vesta_global_map.asp
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/vesta_temperatures.asp
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/vesta_south_pole.asp

Ah, yes, this release:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-024

Also, today's image:
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageo...p?date=20120126

... Finally, boulders, as requested.

[Phil Stooke]

Some pretty clear flows on Vesta in the latest image:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images...TD-148-full.jpg

Probably the clearest I've seen so far.

Phil

[Marz]

Three releases on the multimedia page that would seem to indicate there will be a release / NASA news item about long-lived ice on Vesta.

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/vesta_global_map.asp
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/vesta_temperatures.asp
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/vesta_south_pole.asp

Ah, yes, this release:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-024

Also, today's image:
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageo...p?date=20120126

... Finally, boulders, as requested.

Comparing Vesta's axial tilt of 27 to Ceres with 3, would Ceres be much more likely to retain ice at the poles. Could vapor sublimating from the equatorial regions on Ceres be deposited as layers of frost at the poles, perhaps forming ice caps, or is the surface gravity far too low for this to occur?

[ngunn]

Good question. I hope you get an answer from someone better informed than I am but I'll have a go. I think there's plenty of ice there. There certainly is on Mars although it's a warmer place. Surfaces exposed to the vacuum of space get dessicated but you don't have to dig far below the surface to find the stuff as Phoenix proved on Mars. Will we see it on the surface of Ceres? I don't know. It may have sublimed off all lit surfaces. You might need an impactor (or a hand torch for a walk in the dark).

Why do I always get attracted to OT discussions ?

Ceres: somebody start a topic - we're almost on the way.

[Greg Hullender]

I see that we've got four more months at Vesta, but we're three years away from Ceres.

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/timeline.asp

I suppose I knew that the main mission plan ends abruptly at Ceres, but I was surprised to see that it calls for only five months of observations. That barely seems like enough time to get into LAMO. I hope the Vesta results are compelling enough to get an extended mission approved because it seems like they'll need it before they actually have much in the way of solid results from Ceres.

--Greg

[Phil Stooke]

The short time at Ceres in the primary mission is the main reason that any extended mission will stay at Ceres rather than going on somewhere else. They will need lots of extra time for global high resolution mapping.

Phil

[scalbers]

Here's the released map with feature names put on top warped according to the map projection. Of course the credit info in the lower left wouldn't fit this warping scheme...



Steve

[stevesliva]

Two interesting image releases on Aricia Tholus last week:
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageo...p?date=20120222
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imageo...p?date=20120221

[john_s]

My impression, especially from those new images, is that calling it a "tholus" was premature- it looks like just a random hill that happens to have a dark-rayed impact crater superposed on it. Of course there still must be *something* special about it to produce those dark rays...

John

[Gsnorgathon]

But doesn't "tholus" just mean hill, with regard to how it formed? The topo image sure makes it look like a hill.

[john_s]

That might be technically true, but "tholus" on other bodies has typically been used to denote what appears to be a volcanic construct (e.g. Inachus Tholus on Io, Hecates Tholus on Mars). Are there any counter-examples, of other non-volcanic "tholi"?

John