NASA missions may re-elevate Pluto and Ceres from dwarf planets to full-on planet status
Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, and NASA's Dawn spacecraft will arrive at this dwarf planet on March 6, 2015.
Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, and NASA's Dawn spacecraft will arrive at this dwarf planet on March 6, 2015.
Space Exploration
Feb 26, 2015
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned the sharpest images ever seen of the dwarf planet Ceres. The images were taken 147,000 miles (237,000 kilometers) from Ceres on Jan. 25, and represent a new milestone for a spacecraft that ...
Space Exploration
Jan 27, 2015
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(Phys.org)—Protoplanet Vesta, visited by NASA's Dawn spacecraft from 2011 to 2013, was once thought to be completely dry, incapable of retaining water because of the low temperatures and pressures at its surface. However, ...
Space Exploration
Jan 23, 2015
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(Phys.org)—As NASA's Dawn spacecraft closes in on Ceres, new images show the dwarf planet at 27 pixels across, about three times better than the calibration images taken in early December. These are the first in a series ...
Space Exploration
Jan 19, 2015
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The Dawn spacecraft has delivered a glimpse of Ceres, the largest body in the main asteroid belt, in a new image taken 740,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from the dwarf planet. This is Dawn's best image yet of Ceres as ...
Space Exploration
Dec 5, 2014
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A team of 14 scientists led by David Williams of Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration has completed the first global geologic and tectonic map of the asteroid Vesta. The work reveals that Vesta's ...
Space Exploration
Nov 17, 2014
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A two-person team of Carnegie's Scott Sheppard and Chadwick Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory has discovered a new active asteroid, called 62412, in the Solar System's main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is the ...
Space Exploration
Nov 11, 2014
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(Phys.org) —Astronomers are announcing today the discovery of two unusual objects in comet-like orbits that originate in the Oort cloud but with almost no activity, giving scientists a first look at their surfaces. These ...
Space Exploration
Nov 11, 2014
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When NASA's Dawn spacecraft visited the asteroid Vesta in 2011, it showed that deep grooves that circle the asteroid's equator like a cosmic belt were probably caused by a massive impact on Vesta's south pole. Now, using ...
Space Exploration
Nov 3, 2014
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A new study could provide insights about the abundance of water in fragments from a famous asteroid.
Space Exploration
Oct 24, 2014
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