Dawn Gets Closer To Ceres, Reveals 4-Mile High Mountain

NASA's Dawn has inched closer to Ceres and clicked never-before-seen images of the dwarf planet from proximity.

The images have revealed interesting features of the pockmarked planet, including its prominent conical mountain that stands 4-mile tall, TIME reports. The mountain on a celestial body that is just 591 miles across is comparable to the 5.49 Mt. Everest on Earth. Olympus Mons on Mars is believed to the tallest peak in the solar system at 21 km.

However, the mountain on Ceres is larger in relative terms given the dwarf planet's small size. It is not active but there appears to have been some activity around it, suggested by bright streaks running downhill.

Dawn entered a new orbit at an altitude of 915 miles from where it is set to map the surface of Ceres. Scientists hope Dawn will also shed more light on the bright spots that have remained a mystery as their origin is not known.

"Dawn is performing flawlessly in this new orbit as it conducts its ambitious exploration. The spacecraft's view is now three times as sharp as in its previous mapping orbit, revealing exciting new details of this intriguing dwarf planet," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's mission director, at NASA JPL.

Dawn's proximity to Ceres is also helping the control team refine gravity measures which would aid the spacecraft ease into a smaller orbit of 230 miles altitude later in October.