<p>NASA's Dawn spacecraft that recently reached its lowest-ever altitude at the dwarf planet Ceres has sent fresh images that show Kupalo Crater, one of the youngest craters on Ceres, in a fascinating light.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The crater has bright material exposed on its rim which could be salts and its flat floor likely formed from impact melt and debris.<br /><br />Researchers will be looking closely at whether this material is related to the "bright spots" of Occator Crater.<br /><br />Kupalo, which measures 26 km across and is located at southern mid-latitudes, is named for the Slavic god of vegetation and harvest.<br /><br />"This crater and its recently-formed deposits will be a prime target of study for the team as Dawn continues to explore Ceres in its final mapping phase," said Paul Schenk, a Dawn science team member at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.<br />Dawn took these images near its current altitude of 385 km from Ceres.<br /><br />Dawn's low vantage point also captured the dense network of fractures on the floor of 126-km-wide Dantu Crater. One of the youngest large craters on Earth's moon, called Tycho, has similar fractures.<br /><br />This cracking may have resulted from the cooling of impact melt, or when the crater floor was uplifted after the crater formed.<br /><br />Dawn's other instruments also began studying Ceres intensively in mid-December last year.<br /><br />The spacecraft will remain at its current altitude for the rest of its mission, and indefinitely afterward. The end of the prime mission will be June 30, 2016.<br /><br />Dawn is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet and the first mission outside the Earth-moon system to orbit two distinct solar system targets.<br /><br />After orbiting another planet Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012, it arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015.</p>
<p>NASA's Dawn spacecraft that recently reached its lowest-ever altitude at the dwarf planet Ceres has sent fresh images that show Kupalo Crater, one of the youngest craters on Ceres, in a fascinating light.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The crater has bright material exposed on its rim which could be salts and its flat floor likely formed from impact melt and debris.<br /><br />Researchers will be looking closely at whether this material is related to the "bright spots" of Occator Crater.<br /><br />Kupalo, which measures 26 km across and is located at southern mid-latitudes, is named for the Slavic god of vegetation and harvest.<br /><br />"This crater and its recently-formed deposits will be a prime target of study for the team as Dawn continues to explore Ceres in its final mapping phase," said Paul Schenk, a Dawn science team member at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.<br />Dawn took these images near its current altitude of 385 km from Ceres.<br /><br />Dawn's low vantage point also captured the dense network of fractures on the floor of 126-km-wide Dantu Crater. One of the youngest large craters on Earth's moon, called Tycho, has similar fractures.<br /><br />This cracking may have resulted from the cooling of impact melt, or when the crater floor was uplifted after the crater formed.<br /><br />Dawn's other instruments also began studying Ceres intensively in mid-December last year.<br /><br />The spacecraft will remain at its current altitude for the rest of its mission, and indefinitely afterward. The end of the prime mission will be June 30, 2016.<br /><br />Dawn is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet and the first mission outside the Earth-moon system to orbit two distinct solar system targets.<br /><br />After orbiting another planet Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012, it arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015.</p>