Do you know what’s the difference between a planet and a dwarf planet? And what’s the definition we give for an asteroid?
The terminology for various objects in the solar system is confusing, especially since many objects, such as Pluto, were initially incorrectly labelled. We can actually say that the definition of a celestial body often changes because scientists develop better ideas of what things are and how they function.
The famous Dawn Mission was the first probe to approach and study a dwarf planet., Ceres.
Dawn was a space probe. It left Earth in Sep. 2007 with the goal of studying in detail two of the three protoplanets of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres.
For example, if the astronomical union didn’t decide to introduce the concept of dwarf planets, Pluto would still be classified as a normal planet. Sometimes, the nomenclature can make the difference: we would have a solar system with one more planet, and we would be looking for planet ten instead of planet nine!
So, after some years – four, to be exact – Dawn entered orbit around Vesta.
It was 2011. It chilled and orbit around Vesta collecting data as expected.
It was a nice trip, I’m not gonna lie. It completed a 14-month survey mission before leaving for Ceres in late 2012.
Vesta looked really nice. These are some pictures of it. Look how beautiful!