• Dawn Mission Celebrates 10 Years in Space

    From baalke@1:2320/100 to sci.space.news on Thu Oct 19 23:28:56 2017
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    https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6955

    Dawn Mission Celebrates 10 Years in Space
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    September 27, 2017

    Ten years ago, NASA's Dawn spacecraft set sail for the two most massive
    bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: giant asteroid Vesta
    and dwarf planet Ceres. The mission was designed to deliver new knowledge about these small but intricate worlds, which hold clues to the formation
    of planets in our solar system.

    "Our interplanetary spaceship has exceeded all expectations in the last decade, delivering amazing insights about these two fascinating bodies,"
    said Chris Russell, principal investigator of the Dawn mission, based
    at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    Since its launch on Sept. 27, 2007, Dawn has achieved numerous technical
    and scientific feats while traveling 4 billion miles (6 billion kilometers). It is the only spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial solar system targets. It is also the only spacecraft to orbit a dwarf planet, a milestone it achieved when in entered orbit around Ceres on March 6, 2015. The spacecraft's ion propulsion system enabled Dawn to study each of these worlds from
    a variety of vantage points and altitudes, creating an impressive scrapbook
    of 88,000 photos. Additionally, Dawn's suite of instruments enabled it
    to take a variety of other measurements of Vesta and Ceres, revealing
    the contrasting compositions and internal structures of these two bodies.

    Vesta Highlights

    Scientists learned a great deal about Vesta's geological features and composition during Dawn's 14 months of exploration there. A notable discovery was that Rheasilvia, a giant basin in Vesta's southern hemisphere, was
    even deeper and wider than scientists expected based on telescopic observations

    from Earth. It spans more than 310 miles (500 kilometers) and pierces
    about 12 miles (19 kilometers) into Vesta. The center of the crater also
    hosts a mountain twice the height of Mt. Everest -- the tallest feature
    seen in Dawn's 1,298 orbits of Vesta.

    The massive punch into Vesta that carved out this crater happened about
    1 billion years ago and caused huge amounts of material to rain down on
    the surface. The net result is that the surface of the southern hemisphere
    of Vesta is younger than the northern hemisphere, which retains a hefty
    record of craters. The Rheasilvia impact also created dozens of gorges circling Vesta's equator. Canyons there, some of which formed from an
    earlier impact, measure up to 290 miles (465 kilometers) in length.

    Ceres Highlights

    One of Dawn's biggest revelations at Ceres is the extremely bright, salty material in Occator Crater that gleams amid an otherwise dark area. What appeared to be a single white blob at a distance turned out to be a smattering of many bright areas called faculae. The central bright area, Cerealia
    Facula, has a dome at its center with radial fractures across it that
    appears reddish in enhanced color images. This "bright spot" suggests
    Ceres was geologically active in the very recent past, when briny water
    rose to the surface and deposited salts. Just to the east are the Vinalia Faculae, a constellation of less-bright spots distributed along fractures
    that also intrigue scientists. Ceres hosts more than 300 small bright
    areas, with some thought to host ice at northern latitudes.

    Another huge surprise at Ceres was Ahuna Mons, which scientists believe
    formed as a cryovolcano, a volcano that erupted with salty water in the
    past. This "lonely mountain," 3 miles (5 kilometers) high on its steepest side, is unlike anything else on Ceres and remains a thriving research
    topic. Though both Ahuna Mons and Occator appear dormant, they suggest
    that liquid water flowed once beneath the surface of Ceres, and may even
    still be there today, if it is enriched in salts that would lower its
    freezing point.

    Dawn Science Continues

    "The science team is still actively exploring the troves of data that
    Dawn has delivered so far, comparing these two fossils of the early solar system," said Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal investigator, based
    at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

    Since March 2015, Dawn has orbited Ceres 1,595 times. It remains healthy, currently in a 30-day elliptical orbit collecting data on cosmic rays
    in the vicinity of Ceres.

    "This continues to be a mission for everyone who yearns for new knowledge, everyone who is curious about the cosmos, and everyone who is exhilarated
    by bold adventures into the unknown," said Marc Rayman, mission director
    and chief engineer, based at JPL.

    Dawn's mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's
    Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's
    Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
    Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital
    ATK, Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The
    German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute
    are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of acknowledgments, see http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission.

    For more information about the Dawn mission, visit:

    https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

    News Media Contact
    Elizabeth Landau
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
    818-354-6425
    elizabeth.landau@jpl.nasa.gov

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