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Ahuna MonsGazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature – Ahuna Mons
/ref> () is the largest mountain on the dwarf planet and asteroid
The mountain was discovered on images taken by the ''Dawn'' spacecraft in orbit around Ceres in 2015. It is estimated to have an average height of about and a maximum height of about on its steepest side; it is about wide at the base.
New View Of Ceres Conical Mountain A Puzzler
Bog King * * {{Ceres, state=collapsed Extraterrestrial mountains Extraterrestrial volcanoes Surface features of Ceres Articles containing video clips
/ref> () is the largest mountain on the dwarf planet and asteroid
Ceres
Ceres most commonly refers to:
* Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid
* Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture
Ceres may also refer to:
Places
Brazil
* Ceres, Goiás, Brazil
* Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...
. It protrudes above the cratered terrain, is not an impact feature, and is the only mountain of its kind on Ceres. Bright streaks run top to bottom on its slopes; these streaks are thought to be salt, similar to the better known Cererian bright spots, and likely resulted from cryovolcanic activity from Ceres's interior. It is named after the traditional post-harvest festival '' Ahuna'' of the Sümi Naga
The Sümi Naga also known as Sema Naga are a major Naga ethnic group in the Indian state of Nagaland. The Sümis mainly inhabit Zünheboto District, parts of Niuland District and Kiphire District although many have spread and are now living in ...
people of India. In July 2018, NASA released a comparison of physical features, including Ahuna Mons, found on Ceres with similar ones present on Earth.
Discovery
The mountain was discovered on images taken by the ''Dawn'' spacecraft in orbit around Ceres in 2015. It is estimated to have an average height of about and a maximum height of about on its steepest side; it is about wide at the base.
Origin
It has been proposed that Ahuna Mons formed as acryovolcanic
A cryovolcano (sometimes informally called an ice volcano) is a type of volcano that erupts volatiles such as water, ammonia or methane into an extremely cold environment that is at or below their freezing point. The process of formation is known ...
dome. It is the closest cryovolcano to the Sun yet discovered. It is roughly antipodal to the largest impact basin on Ceres, diameter Kerwan. Seismic energy
A seismic wave is a wave of acoustic energy that travels through the Earth. It can result from an earthquake, volcanic eruption, magma movement, a large landslide, and a large man-made explosion that produces low-frequency acoustic energy. ...
from the Kerwan-forming impact may have been focused on the opposite side of Ceres, fracturing the outer layers of the area and facilitating the movement of high viscosity cryovolcanic magma
Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...
(consisting of muddy water ice softened by its content of salts) that was then extruded onto the surface. Crater counts suggest that formation of the mountain continued into the last several hundred million years, making this a relatively young geological feature.
Ahuna Mons is associated with a positive mass anomaly, or mascon
In astronomy, astrophysics and geophysics, a mass concentration (or mascon) is a region of a planet's or moon's crust that contains a large positive gravity anomaly. In general, the word "mascon" can be used as a noun to refer to an excess dist ...
, centered about below it, not far above the crust-mantle boundary. This suggests it was formed by a plume of mud rising from the mantle.
See also
*List of geological features on Ceres
Ceres is a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The IAU has adopted two themes for naming surface features on Ceres: agricultural deities for craters and agricultural festivals for everything else.
...
* List of tallest mountains in the Solar System
This is a list of the tallest mountains in the Solar System. This list includes peaks on all celestial bodies where significant mountains have been detected. For some celestial bodies, different peaks are given across different types of measure ...
Notes
References
External links
New View Of Ceres Conical Mountain A Puzzler
Bog King * * {{Ceres, state=collapsed Extraterrestrial mountains Extraterrestrial volcanoes Surface features of Ceres Articles containing video clips