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Dawn mission enters new orbit ahead of new opportunities
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 01, 2018

This picture is one of the first images returned by Dawn in more than a year. Dawn captured this view on May 16, 2018 from an altitude of about 270 miles (440 kilometers). The large crater near the horizon is about 22 miles (35 kilometers) in diameter. It is located at about 23 degrees north latitude, 350 degrees east longitude, not far from a series of tholi (small mountains) that include Kwanzaa Tholus.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is maneuvering to its lowest-ever orbit for a close-up examination of the inner solar system's only dwarf planet.

In early June, Dawn will reach its new, final orbit above Ceres. Soon after, it will begin collecting images and other science data from an unprecedented vantage point. This orbit will be less than 30 miles (50 kilometers) above the surface of Ceres - 10 times closer than the spacecraft has ever been.

Dawn will collect gamma ray and neutron spectra, which help scientists understand variations in the chemical makeup of Ceres' uppermost layer. That very low orbit also will garner some of Dawn's closest images yet.

The transfer from Dawn's previous orbit to its final one is not as simple as making a lane change. Dawn's operations team worked for months to plot the course for this second extended mission of the veteran spacecraft, which is propelled by an ion engine. Engineers mapped out more than 45,000 possible trajectories before devising a plan that will allow the best science observations.

Dawn was launched in 2007 and has been exploring the two largest bodies in the main asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres, to uncover new insights into our solar system. It entered Ceres' orbit in March 2015.

"The team is eagerly awaiting the detailed composition and high-resolution imaging from the new, up-close examination," said Dawn's Principal Investigator Carol Raymond of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "These new high-resolution data allow us to test theories formulated from the previous data sets and discover new features of this fascinating dwarf planet."

More detailed information about Dawn's planned orbit is in Marc Rayman's Dawn Journal. Rayman is Dawn's mission director and chief engineer.


Related Links
Dawn at JPL
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology


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IRON AND ICE
Interstellar asteroid in orbit around Sun
London, UK (SPX) May 21, 2018
A new study has discovered the first known permanent immigrant to our solar system. The asteroid, currently nestling in Jupiter's orbit, is the first known asteroid to have been captured from another star system. The work is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. The object known as 'Oumuamua was the last interstellar interloper to hit the First Interstellar Immigrant Discovered in the Solar Systems in 2017. However, it was just a tourist passing through, whereas this former exo-asteroid - given the catchy name (514107) 2015 BZ509 - is a long-term resident. ... read more

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