Unusual Mountain Ahuna Mons on Asteroid Ceres
Explanation:
What created this unusual mountain?
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.
One hypothesis holds that
Ahuna
Mons is an ice volcano that formed shortly after a large impact on the opposite side
of the
dwarf planet
loosened up the terrain through focused
seismic waves.
The bright steaks may be high in
reflective salt,
and therefore 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 last year by the
robotic Dawn mission.
Open Science:
Browse 1,500+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
