NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Has Gone Silent
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has gone silent, ending a historic mission that studied time capsules from the solar system’s earliest chapter. Dawn missed scheduled communications sessions…
Dawn Spacecraft News
The Dawn spacecraft was a pioneering mission by NASA, launched in 2007 to study two of the largest bodies in the asteroid belt—Vesta and Ceres, which are classified as a protoplanet and a dwarf planet, respectively. This mission was remarkable for being the first to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies and for using ion propulsion technology, which uses ions to create thrust and allows for more efficient fuel usage over long distances. Dawn entered orbit around Vesta in July 2011, conducting extensive studies and mapping of its surface for over a year before moving on to Ceres in 2012 and entering orbit in March 2015. The spacecraft provided significant insights into the structure, composition, and history of these bodies, helping scientists understand the early solar system’s formation processes. Dawn continued to transmit data from Ceres until late 2018, when it ran out of the hydrazine fuel needed for attitude control and communication.
A Look Back at the Legacy of NASA’s Dawn Mission
Revealing Solar System Time Capsules, Breaking Engineering Barriers NASA’s Dawn mission is drawing to a close after 11 years of breaking new ground in planetary…
JPL to Host Live Chat on Successful Dawn Mission to Asteroid Belt
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will host a live-streamed Science Chat at 2 p.m. EDT Friday, September 7, during which experts will talk about the…
Dawn Mission Continues to Gather Data in Home Stretch
Pasadena Conference to Include New Insight into Dwarf Planet Ceres As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft prepares to wrap up its groundbreaking 11-year mission, which has included…
Scientists Reveal Dramatic New Views of Occator Crater on Ceres
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft reached its lowest-ever and final orbit around dwarf planet Ceres on June 6 and has been returning thousands of stunning images and…
Astronomers Discover Recent Changes on the Surface of Ceres
Observations of Ceres have detected recent variations in its surface, revealing that the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system is a dynamic body…
Dawn Spacecraft Views Kwanzaa Tholus on Ceres
What is a tholus? A tholus is a type of small mountain. These images show such a feature on dwarf planet Ceres called Kwanzaa Tholus….
Mysterious Bright Spots Suggest Geologic Activity on Ceres
If you could fly aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, the surface of dwarf planet Ceres would generally look quite dark, but with notable exceptions. These exceptions…
Dawn Mission Discovers Possible Ancient Ocean Remnants on Ceres
Two new studies from NASA’s Dawn mission shed light on Ceres, revealing that the dwarf planet may have had a global ocean in the past….
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Celebrates 10 Years in Space
Ten years ago, NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft set sail for the two most massive bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: giant asteroid Vesta…
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Views Pongal Catena on Ceres
This newly released image from NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft shows the northeastern rim of Urvara Crater on Ceres, helping to shed light on the nature of…
Dawn Spacecraft Views Kerwan Crater on Ceres
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft captured this image of the Kerwan crater (the largest crater on Ceres) from an altitude of about 915 miles. The 16-mile-wide (26-kilometer-wide)…
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Successfully Observes Ceres at Opposition from Sun
On April 29th NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft successfully observed Ceres at opposition, taking images from a position exactly between the sun and Ceres’ surface. Mission specialists…
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Reveals Evidence for Ground Ice on Dwarf Planet Ceres
A newly published study in the journal Nature Geoscience reveals evidence that dwarf planet Ceres retains a significant amount of water ice, showing how ice…
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Links Temporary Atmosphere of Ceres to Solar Activity
New observations from NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft reveal the hydrogen content of Ceres’ surface and link the temporary atmosphere to solar activity. Astronomers have long thought…
New Research Shows Ice in Ceres’ Shadowed Craters Linked to Tilt History
Scientists examine the axial tilt of Ceres, finding a correlation between craters that stay in shadow at maximum obliquity and bright deposits that are likely…
NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Identifies Age of Ceres’ Brightest Spot
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute have determined the age of the bright material on Ceres, revealing that it is roughly four million years old….
Astronomers Discover Evidence for Organic Material on Ceres
Using data from NASA’s Dawn Mission, a team of astronomers has discovered evidence for organic material on dwarf planet Ceres. NASA’s Dawn mission has found…