Dawn, NASA's spacecraft, entered the orbit of the dwarf planet Ceres on Friday, after traveling 3.1 billion miles from Earth. Dawn will spend the following 16 months exploring the structure and terrain of Ceres, which is approximately 600 miles across-roughly the size of Texas, USA.
After Dawn was launched in 2007, it spent one year studying the asteroid Vesta. It is able to perform the second mission around Ceres because it is equipped with three ion engines.
In fact, Dawn is history's first spacecraft that has orbited two bodies in outer space, during one mission, according to The Washington Post. It was designed and constructed in Dulles, Virginia, by Orbital ATK.
Ceres is the biggest body in the asteroid belt between Jupiter's and Mars' orbits. Like Pluto, most experts define Ceres as a dwarf planet, since it does not clearly meet the requirements of a planet or asteroid.
The Austrian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres in 1801. Over two centuries later, Dawn is answering the dwarf planet's "cosmic invitation," says Dawn's chief engineer Marc Rayman, according to Spaceflight Now.
Ironically, Dawn is using a propulsion system that Rayman learned from a Star Trek episode. It was mentioned by Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy who passed away on Feb. 27. In the vernacular of Spock, the propulsion system was a "logical" choice.
Scientists believe that a crust of ice covers Ceres, and might contain a rocky core and underground ocean. The dwarf planet is a remnant from the solar system's early history, when objects formed planets after clashing like billiard balls.
After Dawn finishes its mission in mid-2106, scientists will know much about Ceres. That will include the source of its bright spots, and how its evolution functioned as a building block for our solar system's planets.
During its own mission to Ceres, in a sense Dawn is also fulfilling the mission of the original Star Trek Enterprise. That included the goal to, "explore strange new worlds."