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Dawn is scheduled to reach Ceres — the largest body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — on Thursday night (March 5). The probe has been headed for Ceres since September 2012, when it departed Vesta, the asteroid belt's second-biggest denizen.




Dawn orbited Vesta from July 2011 through September 2012. If all goes according to plan, on Thursday night, the probe will become the first spacecraft ever to orbit two celestial objects beyond the Earth-moon system.




Dawn is not equipped to search for signs of life. But the probe will give researchers their first up-close looks at Ceres, bringing the intriguing world into much clearer focus




"As Dawn has come closer to Ceres, the bright spots have become brighter and smaller. Indeed, they are much brighter than the surrounding landscape and still unresolved in our images," Russell added. "The point of origin must be very small."


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[link to www.space.com]



Dwarf Planet Ceres Gets Another Unexplained Bright Spot
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