The Dawn spacecraft becomes silent after 11 years of studying the asteroid belt

NASA's Dawn mission, aimed at studying the largest bodies of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, has come to an end. After 11 years in space and a journey of 4.3 billion kilometers, the craft is running out of fuel and is now silent. Without the hydrazine fuel that the craft uses, it is no longer able to turn its solar panels toward the Sun to recharge or keep its antennas pointed towards the Earth, which means that it can no longer return data to mission control.

The Dawn probe aims to study two particular bodies in the asteroid belt: the dwarf planet Ceres and the giant asteroid Vesta. Its overflight of Ceres not only produced detailed images of the surface, including craters and mountains, but also provided evidence that the dwarf planet could still be active. His discoveries on Vesta were also fascinating. Landslides on the asteroid suggest the possibility of ice formation hidden beneath the surface.

The craft also made several firsts in space exploration, including the first space mission to orbit two destinations, the first spacecraft to orbit an object in the main asteroid belt, the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet and the first mission to visit Ceres and the first mission to visit Vesta.

Launched by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), data collected during the Dawn mission was used to study the formation of our early solar system and showed that dwarf planets may have had oceans at one time given of their history. . Marc Rayman, director of the mission and chief engineer, explained, "The fact that my license plate frame proclaims:" My other vehicle is in the main asteroid belt " show how much Dawn is taking.

Now that it is no longer fueled, the Dawn shuttle will remain in orbit around Ceres where it has been since 2015. Scientists have ensured that the craft can be safely disposed of and that it does not interfere. not to the dwarf planet. to remain a new "moon" for Ceres for many years.