July 15, 2011

Dawn Entering Orbit around Asteroid Vesta

The Dawn Spacecraft is due to enter orbit around the asteroid named Vesta this evening at around 10pm. Dawn was launched in September of 2007, whipped around Mars and is now coming in for a short exploratory rest around Vesta before heading out next year for Ceres, a dwarf planet also in the asteroid belt. Dawn should get to Ceres 3 years after leaving Vesta (July 2015).

Amazing science... we're skipping our own stones through the asteroid belt.

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