NASA’s Dawn spacecraft approaches the dwarf planet Ceres – The Universal

  The largest asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter celestial body welcomes Friday her first visitor.
 

 

 The Dawn spacecraft NASA was scheduled to enter orbit around Ceres to make the first exploration of a dwarf planet. Unlike other entries in orbit requiring ship propellers into action to reduce speed, in this case the final steps will be simpler, and will develop gradually and automatically.
 

 

 Dawn will not be in contact with Earth when the meeting takes place so that the drivers do not receive confirmation that all went well until several hours later.
 

 

 “What really dramatic explore this exotic alien world ” the head of the mission, Marc Rayman, engineer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA mission managed by the said 473 million dollars.
 

 

 Once surrounds Ceres, Dawn will spend the next 16 months taking pictures of its icy surface to determine if active.
 

 

 Ceres is the last stop for the probe, launched in 2007 on a trip to the main asteroid belt. The area is dotted with rocky debris that caused the formation of Sun and planets makes about 4 thousand 500 million year.
 

 

 On his way, Dawn Vesta spent a year in a asteroid the size of Arizona, where he took amazing pictures of the rugged surface before heading to Ceres, which has the approximate dimensions of Texas.
 

 

 That trip was made possible by propulsion engines Dawn ions, which provide gentle yet constant acceleration and are more efficient than conventional propellants.
 

 

 The probe has sent enigmatic images of Ceres before arriving, where two bright areas appear inside a crater that could correspond to concentrations of ice or salt.
 

 

 Scientists hope to get a clearer picture when the ship approaches the surface to study whether steam clouds have been detected in the past continue to rise.
 

 

 Dwarf planets have recently become the subject of several investigations.
 

 

 It is expected that other NASA spacecraft, New Horizons , arrives this summer Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet.
 

 

 Dawn came close to not leave the inner region of the solar system. The mission suffered cancellations related to finance and launch delays before receiving the green light.
 

 

 
 

 

 kal