Dawn Beams Back New Images of Ceres’ Mysterious ‘Pyramid-Shaped’ Mountain

[josephpalazzo]

Ahuna Mons has an average overall height of 2.5 miles (4 km). On its steepest side, it is approximately 3 miles (5 km) high. And its diameter is 12 miles (20 km).


The mountain appeared as a small, bright-sided bump on the surface of Ceres as early as February 2015 from a distance of 29,000 miles (46,000 km), before Dawn was captured into orbit.


As the spacecraft circled the dwarf planet at increasingly lower altitudes, the shape of Ahuna Mons began to come into focus.


From afar, this mountain looked to be pyramid-shaped, but upon closer inspection, it is best described as a dome with smooth, steep walls.


“No one expected a mountain on Ceres, especially one like Ahuna Mons. We still do not have a satisfactory model to explain how it formed,” said Dawn science team member Dr. Chris Russell, from the University of California, Los Angeles.


The latest high-resolution images of Ahuna Mons from Dawn reveal that this mountain has a lot of bright material on some of its slopes, and less on others.


The spacecraft took these images from its low-altitude mapping orbit, 240 miles (385 km) above the surface of Ceres, several months ago.


“Ceres has defied our expectations and surprised us in many ways, thanks to a year’s worth of data from Dawn,” said Dawn science team member Dr. Carol Raymond, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.


“We are hard at work on the mysteries the spacecraft has presented to us.”

http://www.sci-news.com/space/dawn-ceres-mountain-ahuna-mons-03691.html



They haven't debunked the theory that the Goa'ulds built it... not yet...

[SGOS]

They haven't debunked the theory that the Goa'ulds built it... not yet...

That was my first thought.

[Hydra009]

Only one pyramid?  Psssh.  Cydonia has lots of them (according to wackos)

[josephpalazzo]

Yeah, but no GREAT WALL...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yeah, but no GREAT WALL...

But if you look close you can see a guy with a potato field.

[Baruch]

But if you look close you can see a guy with a potato field.

The TV version of Martian Chronicles, back in the 1980s was fun, anyway.

[kilodelta]

A long long time ago, a giant spaceship crashed into Ceres. It went under the surface leaving a hole and creating a mountain. How do I know? Look at this picture:



Checkmate scientists!

[josephpalazzo]

A long long time ago, a giant spaceship crashed into Ceres. It went under the surface leaving a hole and creating a mountain. How do I know? Look at this picture:



Checkmate scientists!

Or it could be a tit...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The TV version of Martian Chronicles, back in the 1980s was fun, anyway.

Yeah. I'd tried reading the book to no avail. The first 5 (I think) expedition failed. Too downer for me back then.

[stromboli]

Yeah. I'd tried reading the book to no avail. The first 5 (I think) expedition failed. Too downer for me back then.

Big Bradbury fan. The "Chronicles" is pretty dark. Something Wicked This Way Comes.....

[Baruch]

Big Bradbury fan. The "Chronicles" is pretty dark. Something Wicked This Way Comes.....

Yes, it was dark.  Took all the raw-raw-sis-boom-bah out of the NASA fantasies though.  Human beings end up destroying the Earth ... but a few Martian colonists ... survive.  The whole time-loop thing was something you had to do a double take on.