NASA brings Ceres to life with colorful animation

Fox News ^ | January 29, 2016 | NASA / JPL

[WhiskeyX]

It was only a matter of time before someone made a short video with Ceres as the star.

The dwarf planet, which has been the focus of the NASA’s Dawn spacecraft of late, lies between Mars and Jupiter. With an average diameter of 590 miles, there has been plenty for Dawn to study since arriving in March 2013.

NASA has taken full of advantage of the fact this is the first mission to achieve orbit around a dwarf planet – releasing scores of images of Ceres and now a nearly four minute animation that gets up close and personal.

[WhiskeyX]

Many years ago it was noted that mining multilevel galleries with ceilings about 1,500 to 2,000 feet high inside Ceres and filled with an Earth like atmosphere would create an environment with an apparent blue skies and enough agricultural land to equal all of the arable land on the Earth. After giving Ceres the necessary spin, the centrifugal force would simulate an Earth like gravity.

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[bimboeruption]

Beautiful!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks WhiskeyX, extra to APoD.

[kidd]

Pretty cool.

Seems like most of the large craters have Hawaiian names

[alexander_busek]

After giving Ceres the necessary spin, the centrifugal force would simulate an Earth like gravity.

The centripetal forces would tear Ceres apart - unless you plastered the entire outer surface of the asteroid with some material (don't know if carbon nanotubules would be sufficiently strong) having an unbelievably high tensile strength. Actually, the floor of each "gallery" would probably have to be reinforced in such a manner. I would probably be advisable to hollow out the asteroid. Further, the artificial gravity would prevail only in a narrow belt around the equator. And say "good-bye" to the putative 100-km-thick ocean of H2O which some scientists speculate might be buried under the Cererean surface!

Regards,