If we want to understand the universe, we need to understand our Solar System first. And NASA is well underway to exploring every bit of our solar neighborhood. Just a couple of days ago the spacecraft Dawn send a message to NASA that it was "healthy and thrusting with its ion engine" in an orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres - one of the few relatively large objects in the Solar System that hasn't been explored yet. Dawn is a spacecraft launched in 2007 with the mission to study Ceres. Ceres is the largest object that lies in the Asteroid Belt inbetween Mars and Jupiter. It is about one third of the size of the Moon and is qualified as a dwarf planet. Ceres has been a mystery to astronomers as to why it never became a planet. Since Ceres has never been studied closely, scientists are looking forward to exploring its surface. The dwarf planet became even more interesting when on February 19, 2015, Dawn photographed two very bright spots on Ceres' surface. It is speculated that those spots might be some underground ice that got excavated after an asteroid crashed into Ceres. If there's underground ice, then there might be liquid water somewhere underground Ceres' surface.
But as fascinating as Ceres is, so is Dawn. The spacecraft is making history through its incredible path so far. Even though the mission was postponed twice, the spacecraft was finally launched in 2007. On its way to Ceres, Dawn managed to spend some time around the asteroid Vesta. This makes Dawn the first spacecraft that has ever been in orbit around two celestial objects. Dawn was able to do that because of its ion engines that use electrically charged atoms to propel the spacecraft forward, saving a lot of fuel. Dawn is equipped with cutting-edge technology that will help study Ceres and gain insight into a whole different class of objects - dwarf planets. Dawn is scheduled to orbit Ceres until mid-2016. After that its mission is still open to discussion. Sources: USA Today Source: USA Today
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