NASA Spacecraft To Capture Close-Up Look At Dwarf Planet
PASADENA (CBSLA.com/AP) — Scientists hope to get a close-up look this week at a planet about the size of Texas that's lurking in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.
NASA hosted a live briefing Monday on the March 6 arrival of the Dawn spacecraft on the dwarf planet Ceres after a three-year journey, the Associated Press reported.
It'll be the second stop for Dawn, which has been snapping pictures of Ceres after earlier visiting the asteroid Vesta.
Launched in 2007 and powered by ion propulsion, Dawn is the first craft to target two space rocks to learn about the solar system's evolution.
Dawn studied Vesta, the second massive object in the asteroid belt, from 2011 to 2012 and beamed back more than 30,000 images.
Ceres is the largest unexplored world of the inner solar system, according to JPL.
Once it arrives at Ceres, Dawn will become not only be the first spacecraft to reach a dwarf planet, it will also mark the first spacecraft ever to orbit two different worlds in deep space.
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