NASA’s scientists were elated that their inner solar system explorer reached the dwarf planet Ceres after a nearly 8 year journey.
Ceres, named after the Roman goddess of agriculture, has been known of for over 200 years, first discovered in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi. Ceres lies within an asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars which was know to exist even before Piazzi’s discovery.
NASA’s Dawn first reached the orbit of the only dwarf planet in our solar system March 6, 2015. Only days before, the Hubble telescope sent back images of two albedo spots. These areas on the planet are reflecting a significant amount of light leading some scientists to propose that the spots represented pools of frozen water or possibly even volcanic eruptions on the planet.
The Dawn spacecraft was first launched in 2007 and will remain a permanent satellite of the dwarf planet Ceres.
