NASA’s Dawn Mission to Asteroid Belt ended

Question: What is the name of largest object in asteroid belt?
(a) Ceres
(b) Vesta
(c) Pallas
(d) Hygeia
Answer: (a)
Related facts:

  • On 1st November, 2018 NASA’s historic mission Dawn ended and the spacecraft had stopped sending signals, since the spacecraft finally ran out of hydrazine (fuel). Dawn became the first spacecraft to orbit a body in the region between Mars and Jupiter.
  • It is to be noted that the Dawn spacecraft launched 11 years ago to visit the two largest objects in the main asteroid belt 4.3 billion miles (6.9 billion kilometers beyond Earth.



  • Dawn entered Vesta’s orbit on July 16, 2011, and completed a 14-month survey mission before leaving for Ceres in late 2012. It then entered Ceres’ orbit on March 6, 2015.
  • Dawn collected astounding images and data from Vesta and Ceres and which very useful and critical to understanding the history and evolution of our solar system.

Links:
http://astronomy.com/news/2018/11/nasas-mission-to-vesta-and-ceres-has-ended
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft)