NASA / JPL - Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA
ONE WEEK FROM NOW... Shown below is a computer-generated image depicting the Dawn spacecraft’s current position (as of 12:53 AM, Pacific Daylight Time today) from its first target in the Asteroid Belt: the protoplanet Vesta. As you can see, Dawn is only 25,100 miles (40,400 kilometers) from the rocky body, and approaching Vesta at a relative speed of 136 mph (even though Dawn is actually traveling at a velocity of around 47,000 mph in space). A new photo of Vesta (shown above) was released online by NASA two days ago. Dawn will enter orbit around Vesta next Saturday, and observe this asteroid for one year. In July of next year, Dawn will depart from Vesta and head for its second and final target: the dwarf planet Ceres, where the ion engine-powered spacecraft will arrive in February of 2015.
NASA / JPL - Gregory J. Whiffen
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