NASA just released footage of the most mysterious pyramid in the solar system

[astr0144]

NASA just released footage of the most mysterious pyramid in the solar system'

I found this and thought that this was done some time ago, but it suggest this has just been released.

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft is flying 240 miles above Ceres, and the images it is capturing are revealing fascinating characteristics of the minor planet's surface.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/ceres-landscape-mystifying-scientists-mountain-crater-outer-space-nasa-footage-2016-1?r=US&IR=T

[zorgon]

[rdunk]

"Pyramid" probably is a bit of a misnomer for the actual shape pf this thing, but it does look a bit strange.

Another thing that also looks a little strange or different from what we usually see.............as the camera looks at Ceres in the blackness of space, the heavens are filled with specs of light, as we usually see with our eyes as we look up into the night sky. But the normal NASA "space pics" we see, for some reason those "lights" don't usually show up in the pics - I wonder why, as we have seen such questions raised numerous times on this fact. I think some of the pics of our Moon with sky showing may be good examples of no lights/stars showing in the pics??

Anyway, here is a screenshot of a for-example with this Ceres video:

[ArMaP]

"Pyramid" probably is a bit of a misnomer for the actual shape pf this thing, but it does look a bit strange.

Yes, it's more a truncated cone, but "pyramid" gets more clicks.

Another thing that also looks a little strange or different from what we usually see.............as the camera looks at Ceres in the blackness of space, the heavens are filled with specs of light, as we usually see with our eyes as we look up into the night sky.

That's because those are computer generated images, those "specs of light" do not exist in the original photos. Also, that video wasn't made by NASA but by "the framing camera team at the German Aerospace Center, DLR", as you can see here.

Here's the original video.

[Dyna]

Updated to describe as a mound. It seems artificial to me. Maybe earth mounds to protect something below.

NEWS | MARCH 7, 2016

Among Ceres' most enigmatic features is a tall mountain the Dawn team named Ahuna Mons. This mountain appeared as a small, bright-sided bump on the surface as early as February 2015 from a distance of 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers), before Dawn was captured into orbit. As Dawn circled Ceres at increasingly lower altitudes, the shape of this mysterious feature began to come into focus. From afar, Ahuna Mons looked to be pyramid-shaped, but upon closer inspection, it is best described as a dome with smooth, steep walls.

Dawn's latest images of Ahuna Mons, taken 120 times closer than in February 2015, reveal that this mountain has a lot of bright material on some of its slopes, and less on others. On its steepest side, it is about 3 miles (5 kilometers) high. The mountain has an average overall height of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers). It rises higher than Washington's Mount Rainier and California's Mount Whitney.

Scientists are beginning to identify other features on Ceres that could be similar in nature to Ahuna Mons, but none is as tall and well-defined as this mountain.

"No one expected a mountain on Ceres, especially one like Ahuna Mons," said Chris Russell, Dawn's principal investigator at the University of California, Los Angeles. "We still do not have a satisfactory model to explain how it formed."

So no news on the bright spots as expected.

"Dawn began mapping Ceres at its lowest altitude in December, but it wasn't until very recently that its orbital path allowed it to view Occator's brightest area. This dwarf planet is very large and it takes a great many orbital revolutions before all of it comes into view of Dawn's camera and other sensors," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and mission director at JPL.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=5745