by APOD Robot » Sun Jun 16, 2019 4:07 am
Unusual Mountain Ahuna Mons on Asteroid Ceres
Explanation: What created this unusual mountain? There is a new theory.
Ahuna Mons is the largest mountain on the largest known asteroid in
our Solar System,
Ceres, which orbits our Sun in the
main asteroid belt between
Mars and
Jupiter.
Ahuna Mons, though, is
like nothing that humanity has ever seen before. For one thing, its slopes are garnished not with
old craters but young vertical streaks. The
new hypothesis, based on numerous gravity measurements, holds that a bubble of mud rose from deep within the
dwarf planet and
pushed through the icy surface at a weak point rich in
reflective salt -- and then froze. The bright streaks are thought to be similar to other recently surfaced material such as visible in
Ceres' famous bright spots. The
featured double-height digital image was constructed from surface maps taken of Ceres in 2016 by the
robotic Dawn mission. Successfully completing its mission in 2018,
Dawn continues to orbit Ceres even though it has exhausted the fuel needed to keep its antennas pointed toward
Earth.
[url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190616.html] [img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_190616.jpg[/img] [size=150]Unusual Mountain Ahuna Mons on Asteroid Ceres[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] What created this unusual mountain? There is a new theory. [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahuna_Mons]Ahuna Mons[/url] is the largest mountain on the largest known asteroid in [url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/solarsystem/needtoknow]our Solar System[/url], [url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/ceres]Ceres[/url], which orbits our Sun in the [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060319.html]main asteroid belt[/url] between [url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars]Mars[/url] and [url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/indepth]Jupiter[/url]. [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160319.html]Ahuna Mons[/url], though, is [url=http://data.whicdn.com/images/21613526/original.jpg]like nothing[/url] that humanity has ever seen before. For one thing, its slopes are garnished not with [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_counting]old craters[/url] but young vertical streaks. The [url=https://www.dlr.de/dlr/presse/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10172/213_read-35076/year-all/#/gallery/35500]new hypothesis[/url], based on numerous gravity measurements, holds that a bubble of mud rose from deep within the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet]dwarf planet[/url] and [url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0378-7]pushed through[/url] the icy surface at a weak point rich in [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151211.html]reflective salt[/url] -- and then froze. The bright streaks are thought to be similar to other recently surfaced material such as visible in [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150514.html]Ceres' famous bright spots[/url]. The [url=https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20915]featured double-height digital image[/url] was constructed from surface maps taken of Ceres in 2016 by the [url=https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/]robotic Dawn mission[/url]. Successfully completing its mission in 2018, [url=https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-dawn-mission-to-asteroid-belt-comes-to-end]Dawn continues to orbit Ceres[/url] even though it has exhausted the fuel needed to keep its antennas pointed toward [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070325.html]Earth[/url].
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