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IRON AND ICE
Dawn Spirals Down to Lowest Orbit Above Vesta
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 13, 2011

This image of the giant asteroid Vesta was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft in the evening Nov. 27 PST (early morning Nov. 28, UTC), as it was spiraling down from its high altitude mapping orbit to low altitude mapping orbit. Full frame image available at NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has successfully maneuvered into its closest orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta, beginning a new phase of science observations. The spacecraft is now circling Vesta at an altitude averaging about 130 miles (210 kilometers) in the phase of the mission known as low altitude mapping orbit.

"Dawn has performed some complicated and beautiful choreography in order to reach this lowest orbit," said Marc Rayman, Dawn chief engineer and mission manager based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We are in an excellent position to learn much more about the secrets of Vesta's surface and interior."

Launched in 2007, Dawn has been in orbit around Vesta, the second most massive object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, since July 15. The team plans to acquire data in the low orbit for at least 10 weeks.

Dawn's framing camera and visible and infrared mapping spectrometer instruments will image portions of the surface at greater resolution than obtained at higher altitudes.

But the primary goal of the low orbit is to collect data for the gamma ray and neutron detector (GRaND) and the gravity experiment. GRaND will be looking for the by-products of cosmic rays reflected off Vesta to reveal the identities of many kinds of atoms in the surface of Vesta. The instrument is most effective at this low altitude.

Close proximity to Vesta also enables ultrasensitive measurements of its gravitational field. These measurements will tell scientists about the way masses are arranged in the giant asteroid's interior.

"Dawn's visit to Vesta has been eye-opening so far, showing us troughs and peaks that telescopes only hinted at," said Christopher Russell, Dawn's principal investigator, based at UCLA. "It whets the appetite for a day when human explorers can see the wonders of asteroids for themselves."

After the science collection is complete at the low altitude mapping orbit, Dawn will spiral out and conduct another science campaign at the high altitude mapping orbit altitude (420 miles, or 680 kilometers), when the sun will have risen higher in the northern regions.

Dawn plans to leave Vesta in July 2012 and arrive at its second destination, the dwarf planet Ceres, in February 2015.

Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Related Links
Dawn at NASA
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology




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IRON AND ICE
Is Vesta the Smallest Terrestrial Planet
Huntsville AL (SPX) Dec 12, 2011
NASA's Dawn spacecraft spent the last four years voyaging to asteroid Vesta - and may have found a planet. Vesta was discovered over two hundred years ago but, until Dawn, has been seen only as an indistinct blur and considered little more than a large, rocky body. Now the spacecraft's instruments are revealing the true complexity of this ancient world. "We're seeing enormous mountai ... read more


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