This image uses enhanced-color combined images taken using blue, green, and infrared filters. Ahuna Mons’ elevation has been exaggerated by a factor of two. The width of the dome is approximately 12 miles (20 km). The Dawn spacecraft’s camera took the images in August 2016 from an altitude of 239 miles (385 km). Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.
Ceres is one of just five recognized dwarf planets in the solar system (Pluto is another). NASA’s Dawn spacecraft entered orbit around this rocky world on March 6, 2015, and studied its icy, cratered surface until the spacecraft ran out of fuel in October 2018.
One of the features Dawn spotted, shown here, is a mountain named Ahuna Mons. The highest mountain on Ceres, it rises to an elevation of 2.5 miles (4,000 meters) at its peak, and is marked by numerous bright streaks that run down its flanks.
Scientists have determined that these marks are actually salt deposits left behind from the formation of Ahuna Mons, when plumes of saltwater and mud rose and erupted from within Ceres, puncturing the surface and creating the mountain. While temperatures on Ceres are far colder than those on Earth, this mechanism is thought to be somewhat similar to the formation of volcanoes by magma plumes on our planet.
More recently, a study of Dawn data, published June 10, 2019 in Nature Geoscience, suggests that a briny, muddy ‘slurry’ exists below Ceres’ surface, surging upwards towards and through the crust to create Ahuna Mons. Another study, published in Nature Astronomy July 1, 2019, also indicates that the dwarf planet has a surprisingly dynamic geology.
Bottom line: Image from the Dawn spacecraft shows Ahuna Mons, the largest mountain on dwarf planet Ceres.
Source:
https://earthsky.org/todays-image/mountain-ceres-ahuna-mon-image