Here comes the Dawn

I'm talking to YOU Vesta.
One of the largest bodies in the Asteroid belt.
Composing about 9 percent of the A-Belts Mass.
roughly 530 KM in size... it's a pretty large body.
The Dawn Spacecraft, is now close enough to resolve some detail.

Dawn will then slow down enough to be captured into and orbit, then spend some time there, before moving off to Ceres (a dwarf planet/large asteroid) Ceres composes about 32 percent of A-belts Mass.





Take a look at the Dawn website for more info.....The Site is very active now with updates, now that Vesta is in view.
dawn.jpl.nasa.gov...

BTW there is speculation that Vesta may have a tiny moon of it's own.

hmpf!

Show some respect when addressing the goddess of the earth, mortal!

Theres no respect anymore...

But nice thread tho...

Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention!!!

I am still lost as to why we are not exploring space with shuttles after all these years. Its sad. But hey....maybe they will put some effort into exploring our Oceans now.....it needs the attention.

On to the link.... thanks again!!!!

reply to post by FraternitasSaturni


LOL

genuflecting now.

I am very interested in these protoplanets. Some large enough to have differentiated interiors. Especially Ceres.

reply to post by MamaJ


You are very welcome.
Keep an eye on the site. They are posting one or two images a week. Soon we'll be flooded with info, once in orbit.

Just 62,000 miles away I had no idea it was going to orbit the asteroid this month, in a week or so.

Is that a relatively lousy photo from so close though? I mean we get Cassini images from hundreds of thousands of miles away from bodies, and this asteroid is larger than all but 8 of Saturn's 62 moons we see, larger than Mimas (Death Star), and larger than Enceladus (Tiger Stripes).

reply to post by Illustronic



Right now they are still using a framing camera....OR "aiming" camera..

Just for targeting....

Actually, I just visited the site again.
That is the MAIN visual image camera as far as I can tell.
There is a spectroscopy camera as well.
But we can orbit these tiny bodies very closely....SO I think we'll see some good stuff starting next week.

where is it going , where is it heading towards and why are we taking pics of it? IS this the so called nibiru?

Originally posted by cloaked4u
where is it going , where is it heading towards and why are we taking pics of it?

IS this the so called nibiru?

WIki, on Vesta....It's in the Asteroid belt, in a planetary type orbit....nothing scary.
en.wikipedia.org...

Of course, read the other links I provided in my posts.
We are going there to learn about our Solar system, and perhaps a little more about it's formation

reply to post by cloaked4u


Its space exploration, maybe you thought you were in the phycology forum, so I'll give you a benefit of that doubt. What was the point you intended to make anyway, since you are here?

Originally posted by Illustronic
reply to post by cloaked4u

 

Its space exploration, maybe you thought you were in the phycology forum, so I'll give you a benefit of that doubt. What was the point you intended to make anyway, since you are here?

Oh come on.. Have some patience with the guy, he's clearly frightened

Originally posted by MamaJ
Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention!!!

I am still lost as to why we are not exploring space with shuttles after all these years. Its sad. But hey....maybe they will put some effort into exploring our Oceans now.....it needs the attention.

On to the link.... thanks again!!!!

religion doesnt ring a bell for you??

they burnt giordano bruno alive for saying that the stars we see are suns like ours with planets orbiting them like ours

where is it going , where is it heading towards and why are we taking pics of it?

A little bit of background

Been a long time coming.

Thanks for the heads up , Space'.

reply to post by spacedoubt


I'm anticipating great images. I also understand Imaging is not the primary objective of this mission, as most NASA missions. The primary objective is to collect scientific geological and and other detections that have little to do with imaging. At least NASA images things, unlike the Russians, that never seem to get things to work so well out there.

I don't understand the NASA bashing with all they provide to the layman. Maybe the layman needs to read more about exactly what NASA does provide to them. I wonder if Russia's space exploration program is that transparent, part Russian myself I never was taught one of their many dialect languages, so don't ask me. I do know their main Russian language is very beautifully phonetic.

I wish the Russian Tsar's never took Russia off of the map, because at the time this took place Russian Artist's were at the forefront of the world efforts, then went into obscurity, in a way.

reply to post by Illustronic

I agree with you completely here.
JPL/Nasa is some of the best spent money of all.
They don't just give it away to individuals. They create scientific and educational value.
They also provide jobs, while giving what the average human thirsts for, which is knowledge.

new Image of Vesta, taken July 9th,
Some other types of geology coming into view.
Almost there!

I found a nice guide Field guide to Meteors and Meteorites.

We've got many samples of Vesta already on Earth.As well as chunks created by collisions of other bodies.
Lots of info on Asteroids, and other Near Earth Objects.
Some great pictures as well.
FIeld Guide to Meteors and Meteorites

There is a listing of our other close encounters, Including Eros (which we orbited for a year)
and Itokawa (which looks like a potato covered in warts)...
Have a look, before the new photos start arriving, of Vesta..(a Main Belt Asteroid).

reply to post by spacedoubt

My post from another duplicate thread:

It’s the only one covered with a volcanic surface.”

A genuine surface piece, I'd like to see some archeological testing on this, 4.5 billion years old, wow!

Its solar wings spread wide, Dawn should begin orbiting Vesta around 1 a.m. Saturday. Vesta’s slight gravity — just 2 percent that of Earth’s — will gently capture the probe, which is closing in on the asteroid at just 100 miles per hour.

Is this tonight at 1AM, or Aug? "Wings?" Sounds kind of like the planet x description. I will give it a gander.
I wonder what caused the 'dark' surface? Cosmic dust? Burnt surface?
Anyways, cool stuff Slayer!

I like the ion propulsion engine.

The Dawn spacecraft uses ion propulsion to get the additional velocity needed to reach Vesta once it leaves the Delta rocket. It also uses ion propulsion to spiral to lower altitudes on Vesta, to leave Vesta and cruise to Ceres and to spiral to a low altitude orbit at Ceres. Ion propulsion makes efficient use of the onboard fuel by accelerating it to a velocity ten times that of chemical rockets. This efficiency is measured in terms of the specific impulse of the fuel (Isp).

Accelerating to velocity ten times that of chemical rockets.

Dawn is in Orbit.
Been monitoring the twitter feed.
Just saw the link. Looks like good news!

www.jpl.nasa.gov...

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Saturday became the first probe ever to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Dawn will study the asteroid, named Vesta, for a year before departing for a second destination, a dwarf planet named Ceres, in July 2012. Observations will provide unprecedented data to help scientists understand the earliest chapter of our solar system. The data also will help pave the way for future human space missions.