NASA's Dawn Mission Finds Young Cryovolcano on Dwarf Planet Ceres

B-Roll that goes along with the live shots.Click for a gallery of OSIRIS-REx VIDEO AND GRAPHICSClick for more information about OSIRIS-REx OSIRIS-REx Interview with NASA Goddard Chief Scientist, Dr. Jim Garvin NASA Goddard Chief Scientist Dr. Jim Garvin answers questions about the OSIRIS-REx mission. Includes full text of his soundbites.Answers the following questions:Tell us about NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex asteroid sample return mission.What scientific discoveries are possible with this mission?Could asteroids contain the chemical precursors for life on Earth and in the solar system?How excited are you about this mission?What will asteroid Bennu teach us about the universe?What is the difference between an asteroid, comet and meteor? Short 1:00 minute SOT from Dr. Jim Garvin about the OSIRIS-REx mission. Includes transcript NASA scientists are available on Thursday, Sept. 8th from 6:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. and again 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. EDT – just hours before NASA’s FIRST-EVER asteroid sample return mission launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida – to find out why NASA is going to this asteroid, and what mysteries it might unlock about how life started on Earth and whether life could have started elsewhere in our solar system. We also have a Spanish-speaking scientist available. On Thursday September 8th at 7:05 p.m. EDT, NASA will launch the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer – or OSIRIS-REx – spacecraft that will travel to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu. Asteroids are rocky debris left over from the dawn of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. They’ve changed little over time, making Bennu a pristine time capsule of the building blocks of our solar system. Crews in the local Washington/Baltimore area are invited out to Goddard Space Flight Center for a launch viewing event + availability for interviews with scientists Sept 8th from 4:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. EDT at the Visitors Center. RSVP information is here.To book a window – contact: Michelle Handleman at michelle.z.handleman@nasa.gov.HD Satellite Coordinates for AMC9-K23AB: AMC-9 Ku-band Xp 23 Slot AB| 83.0 ° W Longitude | DL 12151.0 MHz | Horizontal Polarity | QPSK/DVB-S | FEC 3/4 | SR 13.235 Mbps | DR 18.2954 MHz | HD 720p | Format MPEG2 | Chroma Level 4:2:0 | Audio EmbeddedSuggested Questions:1. Later today NASA will launch its first-ever sample return mission to an asteroid. Tell us more about this mission.2. Could asteroids contain the chemical precursors for life on Earth and in the solar system?3. You have a really interesting way to “kiss the asteroid” to collect a sample. Can you show us how you’re going do that?4. What will scientists do with the sample once it returns to Earth? 5. Where can we learn more? Live Shot Details:Locations:Cape Canaveral Air Force Station/ Cape Canaveral, Florida (from 6am-9am and 4pm-6pm) NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Greenbelt, Maryland (from 9am-2pm)Scientists:Dr. Jim Green / Director, NASA Planetary Science DivisionDr. Ellen Stofan / NASA Chief ScientistDr. Jim Garvin / NASA Goddard Chief ScientistDr. Lucy McFadden / NASA Scientist Dr. Geronimo Villanueva/ NASA Scientist [Interviews in Spanish] For More InformationSee [www.nasa.gov/osirisrex](www.nasa.gov/osirisrex) Related pages

A visualization of Ceres spinning on its axis. The virtual camera moves from the equator toward the north pole, revealing the permanently shadowed regions recently found there. Permanently shadowed regions capable of accumulating surface ice were identified in the northern hemisphere of Ceres using images taken by NASA’s Dawn mission combined with sophisticated computer modeling of illumination.Complete transcript available. A visualization of the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) at the north pole of Ceres as viewed from directly above the pole. While Ceres rotates, areas of day and night move around the pole, but the PSRs remain in darkness. A print-resolution still image illustrating the locations of permanently shadowed regions (light blue) at the north pole of Ceres. In a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, lead author Norbert Schorghofer (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii) and six other scientists identify permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) near the north pole of dwarf planet Ceres, using data gathered by the Dawn spacecraft.Dawn arrived at Ceres in March of 2015. Since then, its Framing Camera (FC) instrument has photographed the entire surface of Ceres at resolutions down to 62 meters per pixel. Scientists at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, or DLR) have used stereo pairs of FC images to create a global digital terrain map (DTM) of the dwarf planet.The authors of the PSR study used the Ceres DTM and a technique called raytracing to find points on the surface of Ceres that never receive direct sunlight. These PSRs are expected to be cold enough to accumulate water ice over long time spans, and future spacecraft visiting Ceres are likely to find fresh water ice there. For More InformationSee [NASA Feature](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/dawn-maps-ceres-craters-where-ice-can-accumulate) Related pages

A NASA spacecraft enters orbit around an unexplored world. This animation is a mosaic of images taken by Dawn roughly two weeks before it entered orbit around Ceres. Dawn captured this partially shadowed image of Ceres from a distance of 30,000 miles. During its approach, Dawn observed a pair of bright spots (shown above) located within one of the asteroid’s impact craters. This two-dimensional projection of Ceres shows its surface is covered with craters produced by collisions with space rocks over eons. Related pages