Dawn

Dawn launched into space on September 27th, 2007 and has now completed its mission. Its primary destination was Vesta and Ceres, which it arrived at on July 16th, 2011 . Wherever Dawn goes, it carries its trusty camera, radio transmitter, and spectrometers. Dawn often chats with humans from NASA / JPL.

Dawn is a space probe located within our solar system’s asteroid belt (situated roughly between Mars and Jupiter) that is studying the giant asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Vesta and Ceres are considered to be two of the first bodies formed in the solar system. Vesta and Ceres hold many insights into characterizing what the early solar system was like. Vesta is a dry, rocky environment while Ceres is thought to be similar to some of the icy moons in the outer solar system. By studying their evolutionary differences, Dawn may provide surprising new knowledge into how our solar system formed.

Worth Exploring:

animated gif of Ceres from as seen from Dawn's approach
a citizen science project to help scientists identify craters on Vesta

(top image: one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System, Vesta, as seen by Dawn, NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA)