NASA space probe ‘Dawn’ enters orbit of dwarf planet

The US space probe Dawn began orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres on Friday on a voyage of discovery into the solar system’s main asteroid belt, where it will collect a trove of data and photos, NASA said. The probe — the first to orbit a dwarf planet — will stay over the mysterious body for 16 months to study its structure and gather clues to help mankind better understand how Earth and the other planets were created. About an hour after reaching Ceres, Dawn sent a signal to mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California to say it was “healthy and thrusting with its ion engine,” the space agency said.

It went exactly the way we expected. Dawn gently, elegantly slid into Ceres’ gravitational embrace.

Marc Rayman, chief engineer for the $473 million mission

Over the next several months Dawn will spiral down toward the surface of Ceres to conduct four science orbits, collecting pictures and data on its geologic features, mineral makeup and gravity field. By November, the probe will be as near as 230 miles to Ceres’s surface, and eventually scientists hope to build a topographic map of Ceres, also called a proto-planet. This summer, another NASA spacecraft — New Horizons — is set to make the first visit to Pluto, which was downgraded to dwarf planet.

By the time we finish in mid-2016, we are going to know Ceres in exquisite detail…We’re going to understand what Ceres means in terms of planets in our solar systems.

Dawn mission deputy principal investigator Carol Raymond

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