NASA probe sets out to unlock the secrets of the solar system

 

An eight year mission sets out to explore the asteroid belt.

Scrabble Word Finder

The unmanned craft, called Dawn, took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the first steps of a journey that will take it to Vesta and Ceras, a dwarf planet and an asteroid between Jupiter and Mars.
 
Scientists are hoping that it will help illuminate their understanding of the planets.
 
Speaking about the mission, chief engineer of the project Marc Rayman commented: "To me, this feels like the first real interplanetary spaceship. This is the first time we’ve really had the capability to go someplace, stop, take a detailed look, spend our time there and then leave."

Visiting the building blocks

The mission, which is expected to cost $357m, will explore the bodies as it is believed that their radically different makeup will cast light on the history of the solar system and why different planets have had different evolutionary paths.
 
"Visiting both Vesta and Ceres enables a study in extraterrestrial contrasts. One is rocky and is representative of the building blocks that constructed the planets of the inner solar system. The other may very well be icy and represents the outer planets. Yet, these two very diverse bodies reside in essentially the same neighbourhood. It is one of the mysteries Dawn hopes to solve," said Christopher Russell, the mission's principal investigator.
 
 

You’ve read it. Now review it.

Back to top

Back to top