Blog Archive

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 artist's concept orbiting asteroid Vesta

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.