NASA’s Dawn spaceship has formally entered its approach stage toward the dwarf planet, Ceres. The spaceship should be able to give some new insights into the Texas-sized planet that is never been visited previously.
NASA’s Dawn liftoff in 2007 and is now planned to enter Ceres’ orbit in March 2015. The spaceship itself just lately comes out from solar conjunction, in which the spaceship was on the inverse side of the sun and which, as a result, restricted communication with antennas on Earth. Presently, mission controllers have modified the moves fundamental for the next phase of the meeting.
Christopher Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission, said in a news release, “Ceres is nearly a complete puzzle to us. Ceres, in contrast to Vesta, has no meteorites connected to it to help uncover its mysteries. All we can forecast with certainty is that we will be astonished.”
Ceres has an average diameter of 590 miles, which makes it the biggest body in the asteroid belt. This band of earth’s planetary group land is situated in the middle of Mars and Jupiter. On the contrary, Vesta has an average diameter of 326 miles and is the 2nd most gigantic body in the belt.
Dawn uses particle drive to cross space much more proficiently than chemical compulsion. By now, its’ completed 5 years of amassed push time, which is significantly more than any other spaceship.
Through the next couple of months, Dawn will offer constantly enhancing perspectives of Ceres preceding its landing. Before the end of January, Dawn will give the best pictures and information ever taken of the dwarf planet. And its final landing in March will proclaim new revelations and new data about this mystifying body situated in the asteroid belt.