NEW YORK: The Dawn spacecraft, introduced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has started its finishing approach to Ceres, a dwarf planet in our solar system’s asteroid belt.
The largest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres is roughly the size of Texas. Dawn is scheduled to reach the dwarf planet in March, with the solar-powered space probe’s ion engine maneuvering it into an orbit around 8,400 miles above Ceres by the end of April.
Dawn has been a long-time sojourner through the solar system on its way towards Ceres. Originally launched in September of 2007, the spacecraft arrived at the Vesta asteroid within the belt in July of 2011. It spent over a year in orbit observing Vesta before departing in September of 2012 on course to Ceres, its final destination – and when it arrives in March it will be the first spacecraft to ever orbit more than one interplanetary objects.
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