3D print Ahuna Mons on Ceres
A lone mountain on a dwarf planet, on one print: the steep cone of Ahuna Mons and the cratered plains around it, from elevation data measured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft.
Where it is 10.48°S 316.20°E Ceres
- Height
- About 4 km (13,100 ft), up to 5 km on its steepest side
- Width
- About 20 km (12 mi)
- Type
- Likely a cryovolcano of salty mud
- Named for
- A harvest festival of the Sumi people of Nagaland, India
71 by 70 km of Ceres, 160 mm across
About Ahuna Mons
Ahuna Mons rises about 4 km (13,100 ft) on average from the plains of the dwarf planet Ceres, and about 5 km (16,400 ft) on its steepest side. It is about 20 km (12 mi) wide and stands alone, with no mountain like it nearby.
NASA scientists think it is a cryovolcano that erupted salty mud rather than molten rock, probably within the last billion years. Sodium carbonate on its flanks marks it as the most recent of possibly 24 such volcanoes on Ceres. NASA's Dawn, the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet, mapped it from orbit between 2015 and 2018.
Sources: IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Ahuna Mons, NASA: Lonely mountain on Ceres likely a salty-mud cryovolcano, NASA JPL: Last look at Ahuna Mons, NASA JPL: Dawn mission comes to an end
