Monday, March 9, 2015

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Finally Arrives at Dwarf Planet Ceres

After a seven-year cruise, and a one-year successful mission at the giant asteroid 4 Vesta, NASA’s Dawn space probe today successfully entered the orbit of its second and final target, the dwarf planet Ceres
Located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres is the largest unexplored world of the inner Solar System.
It was discovered on January 1, 1801 by the Italian astronomer and monk Giuseppe Piazzi.

For the last century, it was known as the largest asteroid in the Solar System. But in 2006, the International Astronomical Union reclassified it as a dwarf planet because of its large size – Ceres is roughly 950 km in diameter
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