Astronomy magazine podcast: Dawn heads to the asteroid belt
Principal Investigator Chris Russell provides an update on the Dawn mission to the asteroids Ceres and Vesta.
Published:
October 25, 2007 Scheduled for launch in 2006, Dawn will use an ion propulsion system to journey to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Once there, it will study Ceres, Vesta, and other asteroids with a suite of scientific instruments.
Photo by UCLA / William K. Hartmann
The Dawn spacecraft is on its way to the asteroid belt. Dawn's goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch by investigating in detail two of the largest protoplanets remaining intact since their formations: Vesta and Ceres.
Chris Russell, the Principal Investigator of Dawn, joins us this week to talk about the mission.
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