Official News page 9

REAL LIFE NEWS: DAWN RISING

by Hazed

Speaking of NASA, they have just successfully launched their mission to the asteroid belt, Dawn. It will travel accross the inner Solar System until it reaches the asteroids, where it will study Ceres.

Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt, and it was recently upgraded to the status of dwarf planet, at the same time Pluto was downgraded to that level. Ceres is thought to hold a layer of water ice below its surface. Dawn will reach Ceres in 2015.

On the way it's going to take a look at Vesta, another large asteroid, approximately half the size of Ceres. It'll get there in 2011. Vesta is very different from Ceres: it's a rocky body whose surface seems to be frozen lava. It has a giant crater at one of its poles, created by a massive collision millions of years ago. This smash blasted out around 200,000 miles of rock, and scientists believe this is responsible for roughtly 5% of all the asteroids we find on Earth.

Ceres, on the other hand, is believed to contain large quantities of ice. If only 25% of its mass is water ice, it would hold more fresh water than there is on Earth.

Dawn's purpose is to work out what processes were involved in the formation of the two asteroids, which will give clues to the early dynamics of the Solar System as a whole.

There's a great mosaic of pictures showing Dawn's takeoff here.

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