Skip to content Home Users' questions How many known moons does Ceres have? Users' questions. Esther Fleming October 2, Table of Contents. Previous Article Which holiday was first celebrated in West Virginia? Next Article Who is Afghanistan famous leader? Back To Top. This year, the minimum extent of Arctic sea ice dropped to 1. Researchers will use Webb to observe 17 actively forming planetary systems. The lander cleared enough dust from one solar panel to keep its seismometer on through the summer, allowing scientists to study three big quakes.
Scientists found evidence that an area on Mars called Arabia Terra had thousands of "super eruptions" over a million-year period. Perseverance successfully collected its first pair of rock samples, and scientists already are gaining new insights into the region. Data received late Sept. The rover will abrade a rock this week, allowing scientists and engineers to decide whether that target would withstand its powerful drill.
Drought is a complicated problem that requires lots of data. Satellites from NASA and its partners help collect that data. Drought Makes its Home on the Range.
Gene Roddenberry would have been years old on Aug. The images show Venus approaching from the left while the Sun is off-camera to the upper right. The next full Moon goes by many names including the Buck Moon. As Dawn sped towards the dwarf planet in late and early , astronomers found two surprise bright spots at about 19 degrees north latitude on Ceres, inside a crater. There don't seem to be any mounds or features close to these spots, which suggests that they are not volcanic in origin.
The bright spots indicate a highly reflective material, likely water ice or salts, researchers say. Dawn team members hope the spacecraft will solve the mystery. The Herschel Space Observatory recently spotted water vapor emanating from Ceres. The plumes appeared to be generated from two locations including close to where the white spots were found and could be a product of icy volcanoes, scientists have said.
The vapor may also have sublimated off after a meteorite strike exposed subsurface ice to space. The plume's nature is another mystery for Dawn to investigate. Water-vapor geysers would hint at the presence of a subsurface ocean on Ceres, which might be capable of supporting life as we know it, some scientists say. Icy moons of the outer solar system such as the Jovian satellite Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus are thought to have underground oceans, which are apparently kept liquid by tidal forces generated by the gravity of neighboring moons and their huge host planets.
Ceres would not experience such tidal forces but could possibly retain some radioactive heat from elements in its interior. Unlike other members of the asteroid belt, Ceres is round, because it's large enough for gravity to mold its shape into a sphere.
Ceres is about miles, or kilometers, wide. Scientists also believe that round bodies tend to have differentiated interiors, meaning that there are different zones inside of them.
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