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Dawn journal: scary-good ion propulsion
Posted by Marc Rayman on 2012/10/31 12:34 CDT
Dawn continues to raise its orbit en route to its 2015 date with Ceres. Also, Marc prepares his high-energy Halloween costume.
Spring arrives to Vesta's north pole, as Dawn departs, plus a request for citizen scientists
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/09/11 11:08 CDT | 3 comments
Dawn's last images of Vesta peek into previously shadowy north polar territory. As the spacecraft leaves Vesta behind, its science team requests help from the public.
Dawn journal: Back to interplanetary space
Posted by Marc Rayman on 2012/09/06 12:49 CDT
After more than a year in orbit, Dawn has left Vesta, beginning the spacecraft's journey to Ceres.
Pretty picture: Vesta's crater Aelia in high resolution
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/13 02:59 CDT | 3 comments
I think my favorite features on Vesta are its streaky craters. Today's image release shows one of the streakiest: Aelia, a little crater on the flank of a larger one, near Vesta's equator.
Dawn journal: The long, slow goodbye
Posted by Marc Rayman on 2012/07/26 12:40 CDT | 1 comments
Dawn has completed the final intensive phase of its exploration of Vesta, and it has now begun its gradual departure for Ceres.
Dawn journal: seeing Vesta in a new light
Posted by Marc Rayman on 2012/07/06 02:33 CDT | 1 comments
Once again Dawn is diligently mapping Vesta, circling the ancient protoplanet about twice a day, observing the signatures of Vesta's tortured history.
Cheat sheets for Vesta's craters and Dawn's Vesta timeline
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/04/19 01:38 CDT
I made myself a cheat sheet to many of Vesta's distinctive-looking craters, and also wrote down a list of the major dates in the timeline of Dawn's exploration of Vesta.
More Dawn Vesta approach images: first color views
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/17 11:37 CST
�On June 30, Dawn stopped thrusting for a full Vestian day -- five hours and 20 minutes -- and just watched the asteroid rotate. But unlike the previous observations, they used all of Dawn's�color filters�to acquire the best-ever color photos of the lumpy world.
Dawn images of Vesta! Released!! For everyone!!!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/14 10:57 CST
Some time in the last few days, the Dawn team�made public the first preliminary version�of the first release of their data from the Vesta phase of their mission.�
Notes on Dawn at Vesta from the 2011 American Geophysical Union meeting
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/12/08 03:19 CST
A report on the press briefing and talks from the Fall 2011 American Geophyisical Union meeting about the data on Vesta collected so far by Dawn.
Lovely pic of a recent crater on Vesta
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/10/11 08:28 CDT
Lovely pic of a recent crater on Vesta
Some first impressions of EPSC-DPS meeting
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/10/03 11:55 CDT
Some first impressions of EPSC-DPS meeting
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/09/16 08:44 CDT
Video: Zooming around Vesta
Dawn's cryptic image release titles
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/09/14 04:44 CDT
Dawn's cryptic image release titles
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/08/16 09:26 CDT
Vesta's wacky craters
Guest Post: Pablo Gutierrez-Marques: Vesta, a revelation
Posted by Pablo Gutierrez-Marques on 2011/08/09 12:19 CDT
Guest Post: Pablo Gutierrez-Marques: Vesta, a revelation
Dawn Journal: Dawn has arrived!
Posted by Marc Rayman on 2011/07/26 11:55 CDT
After covering 2.8 billion kilometers (1.7 billion miles) on its own, after traveling for nearly four years through the lonely emptiness of interplanetary space, after being bound by the gravity only of the sun, Dawn is finally in orbit around Vesta.
Vesta does a Hyperion impression
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/07/21 06:25 CDT
Maybe it's my own peculiar variant of pareidolia, but every time I see a new image of Vesta I'm reminded of some different other lumpy body in the solar system. In the image released just now by the Dawn team, taken from 10,500 kilometers away, I'm seeing Hyperion.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/05/11 12:23 CDT
It's hard to convey just how excited I am to see Dawn's first image of asteroid Vesta.
Dawn's Vesta phase timeline, a summary
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/05/03 01:18 CDT
Now that Dawn has finally begun its science mission at Vesta, I thought it'd be useful to go back through Marc Rayman's Dawn Journals to collect a summary of the plans for Vesta.
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