NASA spacecraft will finish mission in orbit of asteroid belt's largest object

The largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter will continue to have a NASA spacecraft orbiting it for the foreseeable future.

The U.S. space agency's Dawn spacecraft will finish up its mission at the dwarf planet of Ceres, which is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres is located within the orbit of Neptune, and is composed of rock and ice.

How low can I go? My mission has been extended with new orbits at #Ceres! https://t.co/tpo6AdaPv3 http://pic.twitter.com/m0yyPi82Cp
-- NASA's Dawn Mission (@NASA_Dawn) October 19, 2017

With the second extension of its mission, the spacecraft will now drop to lower altitudes of Ceres than ever before, NASA reports in a news release. The Dawn will remain in orbit of Ceres "indefinitely" until after its hydrazine fuel is no more, which is estimated to come in late-2018.

"A priority of the second Ceres mission extension is collecting data with Dawn's gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, which measures the number and energy of gamma rays and neutrons," NASA says. "This information is important for understanding the composition of Ceres' uppermost layer and how much ice it contains.

"The spacecraft also will take visible-light images of Ceres' surface geology with its camera, as well as measurements of Ceres' mineralogy with its visible and infrared mapping spectrometer."

NASA reports that a reason behind this extension is that fact that Ceres will make its closest approach to the sun in April 2018. During this time, the Dawn spacecraft will be better able to observe ice turn to vapor on the dwarf which could lend some information to its "weak transient atmosphere."

Fun fact: I am equidistant from the Sun and Earth this week (2.62 AU from each). http://pic.twitter.com/CsdASh9yRU
-- NASA's Dawn Mission (@NASA_Dawn) October 18, 2017

Before the Dawn arrived in March 2015, the European Space Agency reported that it detected water in the weak atmosphere or exosphere. Going off of this and its own findings from the past two years, NASA says it hypothesizes that "water vapor may be produced in part from energetic particles from the Sun interacting with ice in Ceres' shallow surface."

As the dwarf nears its perihelion -- closest approach to the sun -- space agency scientist will look at ground-based observations, past findings and Dawn's up-close observations to study its interesting atmosphere. It says that when the planet is at its brightest that it might "reveal more secrets about its composition and history."

NASA's Dawn spacecraft determined the hydrogen content of the upper yard, or meter, of Ceres' surface. Blue indicates where hydrogen content is higher, near the poles, while red indicates lower content at lower latitudes.NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI

NASA reports the Dawn team is putting the final chapter of its mission together as the Dawn spacecraft will not land or crash into the dwarf planet due to its "commitment to protect Ceres from Earthly contamination."

Before making it to Ceres, the Dawn spacecraft orbitted the gian asteroid of Vesta for 14 months between 2011 and 2012. The U.S. space agency's spacecraft is the only mission to ever successfully orbit two extraterrestrial targets.

My mission director has this 10th anniversary update (and ordered these cakes!)https://t.co/hGLFEAoOdF http://pic.twitter.com/c8gyHSipKF
-- NASA's Dawn Mission (@NASA_Dawn) September 27, 2017

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