Flight Over Occator

This video, produced by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), shows the intriguing Occator Crater on Ceres. Occator is home to Ceres' brightest area. It may have been produced by upwelling of salt-rich liquids after the impact that formed the crater.

The video shows the many views of the crater that provide scientists with information. The animated flyover includes topographic and enhanced-color views of the crater, highlighting the central dome feature. The central area has been named Cerealia Facula. Occator's secondary group of bright spots is called Vinalia Faculae.

Dawn's mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK, Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of acknowledgments, see http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission.

For more information about the Dawn mission, visit http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Image Credit:

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA