SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -After its escape from Vesta and its journey onward, Dawn entered orbit around Ceres in March 2015. Dawn discovered that the inner solar system’s only dwarf planet was an ocean world where water and ammonia reacted with silicate rocks.

Detailed explanation-2: -The spacecraft is currently in a derelict, but stable, orbit around Ceres. SATCAT no. Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies, the first spacecraft to visit either Vesta or Ceres, and the first to orbit a dwarf planet.

Detailed explanation-3: -Dawn measured Ceres’ surface composition and found a chemical (ammonia), which requires the colder temperatures of the outer solar system–beyond the orbit of Jupiter–to condense. Ceres may have formed there and then drifted closer to the Sun.

Detailed explanation-4: -Dawn enters orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta, becoming the first probe ever to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Detailed explanation-5: -The spacecraft, which explored two of the largest objects in the asteroid belt missed its last two check-ins, one on October 31st and another on November 1st. Without a signal from the spacecraft, NASA engineers concluded that Dawn had finally run out of fuel, officially ending its mission.