Dawn Has Arrived

The Dawn spacecraft is now in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres. Marc Rayman, Dawn mission director, stated:

Since its discovery in 1801, Ceres was known as a planet, then an asteroid and later a dwarf planet...Now, after a journey of 3.1 billion miles (4.9 billion kilometers) and 7.5 years, Dawn calls Ceres, home.

Now the mission can begin to study this mysterious water-loaded planet (estimated to have more water than all the Earth's oceans), including the bright spots on its surface. It seems as though we know more about exoplanets light years away than this nearby neighbor. That is about to change.

Great Image: Approaching the Dwarf Planet Ceres

The images above taken from NASA's spacecraft Dawn are only the parts of an amazing mission to Ceres, the inner solar system's only dwarf planet.  Having studies the asteroid Vesta earlier in its mission, Dawn will now provide visuals and data on Ceres far beyond any thing we have to date.  

Here is NASA's explanation: 

What are those bright spots on asteroid Ceres? As the robotic spacecraft Dawn approaches the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt, the puzzle only deepens. Sharper new images taken last week and released yesterday indicate, as expected, that most of the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is dark and heavily cratered like our Moon and the planet Mercury. The new images do not clearly indicate, however, the nature of comparatively bright spots -- although more of them are seen to exist. The enigmatic spots were first noticed on Texas-sized Ceres a few weeks ago during Dawn's approach. The intriguing mystery might well be solved quickly as Dawn continues to advance toward Ceres, being on schedule to enter orbit on March 6. 

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA, MPS/DLR/IDA