Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Dawn is a retired space probe that was launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. [1] In the fulfillment of that mission—the ninth in NASA's Discovery Program — Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 16, 2011, and completed a 14-month survey ...
Dawn was the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and the first mission outside the Earth-moon system to orbit two distinct solar system targets. After orbiting Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012, it arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015. Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Ceres makes up 40% of the estimated (2394 ± 5) × 10 18 kg mass of the asteroid belt, and it has 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 times the mass of the next asteroid, Vesta, but it is only 1.3% the mass of the Moon. It is close to being in hydrostatic equilibrium , but some deviations from an equilibrium shape have yet to be explained. [ 64 ]
We'll soon know a lot more about it as NASA's Dawn spacecraft has nearly reached Ceres. It's already captured shots of the planet (above) and will soon go into a polar orbit at 13,500 km (8,300 ...
Achita is a large impact crater on the dwarf planet Ceres. The crater is named after Achita, a Nigerian god of agriculture. The crater was imaged as part of NASA's Dawn mission. [2] The probe showed that Achita has mass-wasting ridges on the floor [3] and is the fourth oldest crater on Ceres having been formed 570 million years ago. [4]
“The astounding images and data that Dawn collected from Vesta and Ceres are critical to understanding the history and evolution of our solar system.” As NASA explains, the spacecraft has ...
NASA's Dawn mission is a mission in NASA's Discovery Program. Dawn orbited and explored the giant protoplanet Vesta in 2011-2012, and now it is in orbit and exploring a second new world, dwarf ...
Images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft were used to create a movie of Ceres rotating, followed by a flyover view of Occator Crater, home of Ceres' brightest area. Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight ...