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Ceres' limb

Ceres' limb
Ceres' limb Dawn had this view of Ceres’ limb on Oct. 16 at an altitude of 920 miles (1,480 kilometers). The probe took this picture about 12 minutes after the picture above of Occator Crater. By this time, Dawn’s orbital motion had taken the center of Occator out of the view, but most of the shadowy eastern part is still visible at upper left. A Cerean day lasts about nine hours, so in the time between these two pictures, Ceres rotated as much as Earth would rotate in about 32 minutes. As a result, the change in the sun angle is quite noticeable. You can compare some craters in the two pictures to see how the lighting has changed. This is particularly evident not only in Occator but also in the crater near the center of the large crater visible here (on the lower right of the first picture) as well as the craters below and to the left of it. At the bottom right of this picture is part of the 45-mile (72-kilometer) Kaikara Crater. (Kaikara is a harvest goddess in the kingdom of Bunyoro in Uganda.) You can locate this scene on this map, with Kaikara at 43°N, 222°E and Occator at 20°N, 239°E. Full image (rotated differently and with different picture adjustments) and caption. NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA