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Dawn |
| Origin of Name: | The mission's aim is to unlock secrets from the "dawn" of the solar system. |
| Country / Organisation | NASA/JPL |
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Exploring |
The asteroids Vesta and Ceres |
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Launch Date: |
27th September 2007 |
| Arrival Date: |
Arrival at Vesta: July 2011. Departure Vesta: July 2012. |
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Duration of Mission: |
Primary mission ends July 2015 |
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Mission Description: |
Dawn's mission is to study two of the largest main-belt asteroids. The question it seeks to answer concerns the role of size and water in the formation of the terrestrial planets. It is already known that Ceres has seasonal frost ice-caps, so obviously water has a role in the shaping of its surface. Vesta, on the other hand, seems completely dry. By studying these primordial relics from the birth of the solar system, planetary scientists seek to better understand the processes which formed Mercury, Earth and Mars. The mission has great potential to make some fundamental discoveries. The below image of Vesta was taken from a distance of about 9,500 miles, on July 16th 2011 after Dawn had achieved orbit. It shows a heavily-cratered surface scored by a series of grooves whose origins are as yet not understood.
Looking at this image, what is not immediately apparent is that virtually the whole hemisphere is one giant creater, with the "bulge" in the centre of the image being a central mountain formed during the impact and so often seen in impact craters elsewhere in the solar system, for example on the Moon.. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA "Flyround" video compiled from Dawn images: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1020
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