The spacecraft “Dawn” went into orbit distant space object. This “dwarf” really can give a sensation. Preliminary observations indicate that water can exist Ceres. And in large quantities.
The first hope appeared a year ago when space observatory “Herschel” found at this site steam. More recently, bound to Ceres apparatus “Dawn” (Dawn) transmitted to Earth image of two light spots. There is a version that the glow of a giant water fountain or ice.
And where the water is, there is a great chance for the origin of life. In short, science is waiting for new posts in the next few hours, when the interplanetary station NASA “Breaking Dawn” will be released into the orbit of Ceres, approaching her 10 thousand kilometers. In general, the machine must answer many questions about how the solar system formed.
Note that Ceres in science difficult fate. Its status has changed several times. It was opened in 1801 by Italian Giuseppe Piazzi. It was the largest object between Mars and Jupiter, its diameter is about 1000 kilometers, weight is 4 percent of the mass of the moon. Originally Ceres was considered a planet. But after 50 years of its demoted to an asteroid. In 2006, the debate resumed. The fact that Ceres had everything we needed to on formal grounds to get the status of the planet. She has an impressive weight, spherical shape, orbits a star and is not no companion planet. But astronomers have introduced another concept, who struck Ceres from the circle of “privileged”. The planet must have around him “space free from other bodies.” Alas, Ceres is surrounded by many objects that fly between Mars and Jupiter. So she became a dwarf planet.
Nevertheless, scientists showed her a lot of attention. Almost eight years flying to this “dwarf” spacecraft “Dawn”, breaking the nearly three million kilometers. The cost of this mission is about 400 million dollars.
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