Space & Astronomy

Dawn snaps closeup of 'pyramid' on Ceres

By T.K. Randall
August 26, 2015

Image: Rendering of the Dwarf Planet Ceres
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA / (PD) Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, might at first glance appear to be little more than a barren piece of rock floating in space - a remnant of some ancient collision that took place back when the solar system was in its infancy.

As it turns out however this tiny world is home to a host of intriguing features and anomalies.One of these, a pyramid-shaped formation that was picked up in some of the earlier photographs returned by the Dawn spacecraft, has now been revealed from a height of 900 miles.

This peculiar mountain, which sticks out like a sore thumb in an otherwise relatively flat landscape, appears to be coated in some sort of reflective material - possibly ice.

It still isn't clear what processes produced such an isolated surface feature but scientists are hoping that more will be revealed once Dawn has descended to an altitude of 230 miles in December.

Source: Popular Science

Tags: Ceres, Pyramid