NASA is showing off pictures of incredible celestial scenes taken by its Dawn spacecraft. The recent photos are of the dwarf planet Ceres and offer an incredibly give look at the planet. The pictures were taken from around 90,000 miles away as the spacecraft nears the orbit of the planet. It is scheduled to do a thorough and comprehensive study of the celestial orb. The ship should make physical contact with the planet within a few months, marking the end of a long voyage and the beginning of an intense data gathering expedition.
Dwarf Planet
Ceres is small or dwarf planet and only about 590 miles across scientist have guessed it is covered with a crust of ice as it is too far from any sun to warm it with its radiologic waves. The spacecraft was launched from NASA in 2007 and has traveled millions of miles to reach the small planet.
This is the ships second stop on the trip. It orbited the asteroid Vesta for three months in 2011, taking over 30,000 pictures. The scientists hope to decoder many things about Ceres including its composition, atmospheres characteristics and what the actual planet is made of.
Long Trip
The ship is powered by an electrically charged ion engine and will utilize the grab of Ceres orbital force to reach its final destination. The planet is no more than the size of Texas and it is difficult to land on such a small target. The ship will orbit the planet several times allowing its natural gravitational force to pull the ship towards it. This is important accomplishment for NASA as it tries to remain open while many in congress are calling for the program to be shut down. Information from celestial bodies can be critical for scientists in discovering information that can be used to assist them in understanding the earth and how it functions internally.
Source: NASA
