{"id":16283,"date":"2015-06-07T19:49:26","date_gmt":"2015-06-07T11:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/dawn-enters-new-orbit-closer-to-ceres\/"},"modified":"2015-06-07T19:49:26","modified_gmt":"2015-06-07T11:49:26","slug":"dawn-enters-new-orbit-closer-to-ceres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/dawn-enters-new-orbit-closer-to-ceres\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawn enters new orbit closer to Ceres"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dawn
Dawn captured this view of Ceres on May 7 from a distance of 8,400 miles, or 13,600 kilometers. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/UCLA\/MPS\/DLR\/IDA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA\u2019s Dawn asteroid explorer has arrived at its new perch 2,700 miles from the dwarf planet Ceres, a vantage point scientists say will yield better views as the probe continues to step closer to the surface.<\/p>\n

Dawn is now flying about 2,700 miles, or 4,400 kilometers, from Ceres after spiraling closer to the Texas-sized dwarf planet over the last four weeks from an altitude of 8,400 miles.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft entered its new orbit Wednesday and resumed collecting scientific observations Friday, according to status reports posted on the mission\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

The new orbit will allow Dawn\u2019s framing camera to take picture of Ceres with three times better resolution than before. The probe will fly around Ceres eight times \u2014 completing one circuit every 3.1 days \u2014 before departing for an even lower orbit June 30.<\/p>\n

Dawn\u2019s ultra-efficient xenon-fueled ion propulsion system drives the spacecraft between orbits around Ceres. The ion thrusters also allowed Dawn to visit two objects in the asteroid belt \u2014 Vesta and Ceres \u2014 becoming the first probe to orbit two bodies in the solar system beyond the moon.<\/p>\n

Dawn\u2019s polar orbit around Ceres will give the spacecraft\u2019s two main instruments to collect images and analyze the composition and properties of the mini-world\u2019s surface. Some of the measurements will focus directly underneath Dawn, but it will also observe the limb, or horizon, of Ceres to study the dwarf planet\u2019s shape and look for signs of material lofted into space by potential ice volcanoes.<\/p>\n

\"Dawn
Dawn paused its descent toward Ceres on May 23 to take the picture seen in this inset. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/UCLA\/MPS\/DLR\/IDA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA released a teaser photo from Dawn taken May 23 showing how much better images will be during the mission\u2019s next phase.<\/p>\n

Dawn\u2019s next stop after June 30 is a \u201chigh-altitude mapping orbit\u201d approximately 900 miles above Ceres, where the craft will conduct more detailed mapping for nearly two months.<\/p>\n

The probe will arrive in its final planned orbit in December, when Dawn will fly just 232 miles above Ceres until the mission ends in mid-2016.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dawn captured this view of Ceres on May 7 from a distance of 8,400 miles, or 13,600 kilometers. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/UCLA\/MPS\/DLR\/IDA NASA\u2019s Dawn asteroid explorer has arrived at its new perch 2,700 miles from the dwarf planet Ceres, a vantage point scientists say will yield better views as the probe continues to step closer to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2838,2839,1561],"class_list":["post-16283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ceres","tag-dawn","tag-planetary-science"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}