{"id":184775,"date":"2025-03-11T04:18:34","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T18:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?guid=99190c5798bed4b753267f564a28a59f"},"modified":"2025-03-11T04:18:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T18:18:34","slug":"nasas-dawn-sees-crescent-ceres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=184775","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Dawn Sees Crescent Ceres"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\">\n<div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\">\n<div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\">\n<figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pia21407-fig1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1104\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pia21407-fig1.jpg?w=1104\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"Ceres, a dwarf planet, appears as a gray, cratered crescent, as the spacecraft that took this image was on the planet&#039;s night side. Only the bottom of the planet is visible, with the rest indistinguishable from the darkness of space.\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pia21407-fig1.jpg 1104w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pia21407-fig1.jpg?resize=300,237 300w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pia21407-fig1.jpg?resize=768,607 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pia21407-fig1.jpg?resize=1024,809 1024w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pia21407-fig1.jpg?resize=400,316 400w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pia21407-fig1.jpg?resize=600,474 600w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pia21407-fig1.jpg?resize=900,711 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1104px) 100vw, 1104px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\">\n<div class=\"hds-credits\">NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/UCLA\/MPS\/DLR\/IDA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NASA&#8217;s Dawn spacecraft took this image of Ceres&#8217; south polar region on May 17, 2017. Launched on Sept. 27, 2007, Dawn was NASA\u2019s first truly interplanetary spaceship. The mission featured extended stays at two extraterrestrial bodies:&nbsp; giant asteroid Vesta&nbsp;and&nbsp;dwarf planet Ceres, both in the debris-strewn main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.<\/p>\n<p>The spacecraft\u2019s name was meant to present a simple view of the <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/dawn\/objectives\/\" rel=\"noopener\">mission\u2019s purpose<\/a>: to provide information on the dawn of the solar system. The three principal scientific drivers for the mission were to capture the earliest moments in the origin of the solar system, determine the nature of the building blocks from which the terrestrial planets formed, and contrast the formation and evolution of two small planets that followed very different evolutionary paths.<\/p>\n<p>Dawn completed the first order exploration of the inner solar system, addressed NASA&#8217;s goal of understanding the origin and evolution of the solar system, and complemented investigations of Mercury, Earth, and Mars. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/news-release\/nasas-dawn-mission-to-asteroid-belt-comes-to-end\/\">Dawn\u2019s mission ended<\/a> on Nov. 1, 2018, after two extended missions.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/dawn\/dawn-journal\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Follow Dawn\u2019s journey from Earth to deep space through the words of mission director and chief engineer, Dr. Marc Rayman.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/UCLA\/MPS\/DLR\/IDA<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft took this image of Ceres\u2019 south polar region on May 17, 2017. Launched on Sept. 27, 2007, Dawn was NASA\u2019s first truly interplanetary spaceship. The mission featured extended stays at two extraterrestrial bodies:\u00a0 giant asteroid Vesta\u00a0and\u00a0dwarf planet Ceres, both in the debris-strewn main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft\u2019s name [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15799,15800],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ceres","category-dawn"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184776,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184775\/revisions\/184776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}