May 10, 2016
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA and Dr Paolo C. Fienga for the additional process. and color.
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This wonderful Contextual Image (or "CTX Frame", for short) of the Dwarf Planet 1-Ceres, taken by the NASA - Dawn Spacecraft on March, 20th, 2016, shows us the "enigmatic" Mountain named Ahuna Mons. The rugged Plateau of this Surface Feature is just sparsely cratered, thus inferring that the Mountain was formed in a - relatively - recent past. The Terrain surrounding Ahuna Mons is densely packed with small Unnamed Impact Craters, reflecting the greater age of these Plains with respect to the Mountain. The formation process of Ahuna Mons is still unknown, but a joint combination of Volcanism and Tectonism appears to be quite believable. The Original View of Ahuna Mons is centered at approximately 10° South Latitude and 318° East Longitude. The NASA - Dawn Spacecraft captured the scene during its Low-Altitude Mapping Orbit (or "LAMO", for short), from an approx. altitude of 240 miles (such as about 386,2416 Km) above the Surface of 1-Ceres. The Image Resolution is roughly 120 feet (i.e. about 36,576 meters) per pixel (---> Picture Element). This image (which is an Original NASA - Dawn Spacecraft's b/w and NON Map-Projected frame published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. PIA 20579 - DAWN LAMO Image n. 84) has been additionally processed, extra-magnified to aid the visibility of the details, contrast enhanced and sharpened, Gamma corrected and then colorized (according to an educated guess carried out by Dr Paolo C. Fienga-LXTT-IPF) in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a normal human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - Dawn Spacecraft and then looked ahead, towards the Surface of 1-Ceres), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team. |
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