Tonight, a NASA Probe Will Orbit Massive Belt Asteroid, For the First Time
Approaching Vesta NASA's Dawn spacecraft snapped this photo July 9, 2011, from about 26,000 miles away. Dawn is set to enter orbit around this protoplanet asteroid later tonight. NASA Enough with the lasts at NASA these days - here's a first for you. The Dawn spacecraft is about to become the first probe to orbit a main-belt asteroid. After speeding through the solar system for four years with ion thrusters, Dawn is now poised to enter orbit around Vesta later tonight, where it will circle for a year and study the giant space rock's composition. Vesta's gravitational pull is expected to capture Dawn around 10 p.m. Pacific time/ 1 a.m. Saturday Eastern time, according to NASA. Although it lives in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, thee monstrous, 330-mile-wide Vesta is really more of a protoplanet than an asteroid. Most space rocks in its neighborhood are a third...