Bright Ceres Crater Looks Like a Stop Sign (Photos)
A strange crater on Ceres seems to be warning spacecraft not to land on the dwarf planet's battered surface.
The rim of Ceres' Haulani Crater is composed of relatively straight lines, making the 21-mile-wide (34 kilometers) feature look oddly like a stop sign, as several dazzling new photos
captured by NASA's Dawn probe show.
"The crater's polygonal nature (meaning it resembles a shape made of straight lines) is noteworthy because most craters seen on other planetary bodies, including Earth, are nearly circular," NASA officials wrote today (April 19) in a description of the newly released images
. "The straight edges of some Cerean craters, including Haulani, result from pre-existing stress patterns and faults beneath the surface." [Photos: Dwarf Planet Ceres, the Solar System's Largest Asteroid]
- See more at: Bright Ceres Crater Looks Like a Stop Sign (Photos)
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A strange crater on Ceres seems to be warning spacecraft not to land on the dwarf planet's battered surface.
The rim of Ceres' Haulani Crater is composed of relatively straight lines, making the 21-mile-wide (34 kilometers) feature look oddly like a stop sign, as several dazzling new photos
captured by NASA's Dawn probe show."The crater's polygonal nature (meaning it resembles a shape made of straight lines) is noteworthy because most craters seen on other planetary bodies, including Earth, are nearly circular," NASA officials wrote today (April 19) in a description of the newly released images
. "The straight edges of some Cerean craters, including Haulani, result from pre-existing stress patterns and faults beneath the surface." [Photos: Dwarf Planet Ceres, the Solar System's Largest Asteroid]- See more at: Bright Ceres Crater Looks Like a Stop Sign (Photos)
More pics at site
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