NASA spacecraft orbits mysterious asteroid.
Following a nearly four-year journey and 1.7
billion miles (2.8 billion kilometers) into
space, the Dawn probe recently entered into
orbit around Vesta, the second-largest planetary
body in the main asteroid belt between Mars
and Jupiter.
Launched by the US National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA), Dawn's mission
team includes US scientists as well as team
members from German and Italian space agencies.
Since arriving as the first-ever spacecraft
in the solar system's asteroid belt, Dawn
has been sending back high-resolution images
of the 530-kilometer wide Vesta.
Mission lead scientist Christopher Russell
of the University of California, Los Angeles,
USA noted from the pictures that the asteroid's
surface, which has remained virtually unchanged
in the last 4 billion years, contains many
more craters and is far more colorful than
scientists had expected.
He and fellow team members are seeking to
know more details about Vesta, such as why
it is the brightest object in the asteroid
belt, with a highly-reflective surface three
times brighter than Earth’s moon.
After one year of orbiting Vesta, the Dawn
spacecraft is scheduled to continue on to
the largest celestial body in the asteroid
belt, the planet Ceres.
Bravo, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
and international scientists' team for your
work together in Dawn's successful arrival
at the asteroid Vesta!
We look forward to hearing more of the expanded
knowledge revealed from this exciting voyage
into space�
