Dawn Orbiting Vesta
This artist's concept shows NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbiting the giant asteroid Vesta. The depiction of Vesta is based on images obtained by Dawn's framing cameras. Dawn is an international collaboration of the US, Germany and Italy. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Dawn Asteroid Orbiter successfully spiraled down today to the closest orbit the probe will ever achieve around the giant asteroid Vesta, and has now begun the most critical science observations that will ultimately yield the highest resolution measurements to be obtained of this spectacular body throughout the entire mission.
“What can be more exciting than to explore an alien world that until recently was virtually unknown!” Dr. Marc Rayman gushed in an exclusive to Universe Today. Rayman is Dawn’s Chief Engineer from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.. and a protégé of Star Trek’s Mr. Scott.
Before Dawn, Vesta was little more than a fuzzy blob in the world’s most powerful telescopes. Vesta is the second most massive object in the main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.(…)
Read the rest of Dawn swoops to lowest orbit around Vesta – Unveiling Spectacular Alien World (948 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2011. |
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Post tags: 1 Ceres, 4 vesta, Asteroids, Dawn Asteroid Orbiter, Dawn mission, Jupiter, Main Asteroid Belt, Mars, NASA
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