[meteorite-list] NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Beams Back New Photo

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:09:22 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201107222009.p6MK9MPL022342_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-221

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Beams Back New Photo
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 21, 2011

[Image}
NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 18, 2011. NASA's
Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 18, 2011. It was taken
from a distance of about 6,500 miles (10,500 kilometers) away from the protoplanet Vesta.
The smallest detail visible is about 1.2 miles (2.0 km).
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Dawn took this image during its current orbit of Vesta, traveling from the day side to the
night side. The large structure near the south pole that showed up so prominently in previous
images is visible in the center of the illuminated surface. Compared to other images, this
one shows more of the surface beneath the spacecraft in the shadow of night. Vesta turns on
its axis once every five hours and 20 minutes.

Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 15, 2011, and will spend a year orbiting the body.
After that, the next stop on its itinerary will be an encounter with the dwarf planet Ceres.

The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA. The University of
California, Los Angeles, is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing
cameras have been developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for
Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR
German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with
the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The Framing
Camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.

Priscilla Vega (818) 354-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Priscilla.r.vega at jpl.nasa.gov

2011-221
Received on Fri 22 Jul 2011 04:09:22 PM PDT