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Dawn Probe Reaches Its Low, Final Orbit
The new orbit has a periapsis of less than 48 km above the pockmarked surface of Ceres and an apoapsis of 4,000 km.
There's also a specific reason for the 27-hour, 13-minute orbit: This puts Dawn in a 3:1 resonant orbit with the asteroid, which rotates once every 9 hours, 4 minutes. Engineers are targeting several successive orbits over Occator crater.
A lower orbit will allow researchers to map Ceres's gravitational field and hence its internal mass distribution. Surprises may be in store, though: Dawn's reaction wheels failed earlier this year, so it now uses its hydrazine-fueled thrusters to control its orientation in space.
In its last months Dawn will map Ceres in unprecedented detail while continuing to use its instruments to collect neutron and gamma-ray spectra, which probe the surface's chemical composition.
Credit: NASA/JPL
The new orbit has a periapsis of less than 48 km above the pockmarked surface of Ceres and an apoapsis of 4,000 km.
There's also a specific reason for the 27-hour, 13-minute orbit: This puts Dawn in a 3:1 resonant orbit with the asteroid, which rotates once every 9 hours, 4 minutes. Engineers are targeting several successive orbits over Occator crater.
A lower orbit will allow researchers to map Ceres's gravitational field and hence its internal mass distribution. Surprises may be in store, though: Dawn's reaction wheels failed earlier this year, so it now uses its hydrazine-fueled thrusters to control its orientation in space.
In its last months Dawn will map Ceres in unprecedented detail while continuing to use its instruments to collect neutron and gamma-ray spectra, which probe the surface's chemical composition.
Credit: NASA/JPL