NASA's Dawn mission to strange places in our solar system is coming to an end

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has broken down in gasoline and is no longer in touch with mission control, the agency said.

The 11-year mission of the spacecraft has come to an end, allowing it to travel 4.3 billion kilometers the largest objects of the main asteroid belt of our solar system. Dawn visited Vesta and Ceres, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit two destinations in deep space.

Dawn missed two communication sessions with NASA's Deep Space Network over the last two days, which means she lost the ability to turn her antennas to Earth. or its solar panels to the sun. The end of the mission is not a surprise, as the spacecraft has been running out of fuel for some time.

This is NASA's second historic mission this week to run out of fuel and complete, as NASA's Kepler Space Telescope did on Tuesday.

"Today we are celebrating the end of our Dawn mission – its incredible technical achievements, vital scientific knowledge, and entire team that helped the spacecraft make these discoveries," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Deputy Administrator. from the NASA Science Department. Mission Direction in Washington. "The amazing images and data collected by Dawn from Vesta and Ceres are essential to understanding the history and evolution of our solar system."

Vesta and Ceres are considered capsules temporal since the beginning of our solar system. The experiments conducted by Dawn have allowed astronomers to examine the different ways in which Vesta and Ceres have formed and evolved, as well as to reveal that dwarf planets can also host oceans.

Vesta probably was formed in the inner solar system and remained between Mars and Jupiter, and it evolved like other rocky planets. Its craters provided a road map of the impacts on the ancient surface, suggesting that large planets had crashed into it. It also suggests that the planets were "born big" rather than start small and grow.

Ceres was formed further from the sun and migrated to the same area of ​​the inner solar system. On the surface, Dawn has found ammonia, which requires the formation of cold temperatures of the external solar system.

Vesta did not have as much water as Ceres and so melted his own interior to form a metal core and a rocky crust. while Ceres has a rocky mantle resembling clay and an outer shell rich in icy water. This is why scientists studying Dawn's data think that Ceres once housed an ocean and that there could even be a liquid under the surface.

Dawn has also detected an abundance of organic molecules in one of the Ceres craters, which could come from the ocean of the planet. On Earth, these same organic molecules are badociated with life.

Bright features on the dark surface of Ceres and a giant solitary volcano suggest that the surface of the dwarf planet has been geologically active recently.

The license plate frame proclaiming "My other vehicle is in the main asteroid belt" shows how proud I am of Dawn, "said the director of the mission and engineer Chief Marc Rayman at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The demands we made on Dawn were huge, but they took up the challenge every time. It's hard to say goodbye to this amazing spaceship, but the time has come.

Dawn will remain in orbit around Ceres for at least 20 years, although engineers placing it on this orbit are confident that it could last 50 years. They do not want Ceres to collide with her, as it may disrupt intriguing chemistry on the dwarf planet – a chemistry that could lead to the development of life.

"In many ways, Dawn's legacy is just beginning. Said Principal Researcher Carol Raymond of JPL. "Dawn's data will be deepened by scientists working on planetary growth and differentiation, as well as the time and place where life could have formed in our solar system. Ceres and Vesta also play an important role in the study of distant planetary systems, as they provide insight into the conditions that may exist around young stars. "

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