|  NASA's Dawn spacecraft took these images of dwarf planet Ceres from about 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) away on Feb. 25, 2015. Ceres appears half in shadow because of the current position of the spacecraft relative to the dwarf planet and the sun. The resolution is about 2.3 miles (3.7 kilometers Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA | |
NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EST today to discuss the historic arrival of the agency’s Dawn spacecraft at the dwarf planet Ceres.
Ceres, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is the largest unexplored world of the inner solar system. Dawn is not only the first spacecraft to reach a dwarf planet, it is the first spacecraft ever to orbit two different worlds in deep space.
Dawn was the first spacecraft to orbit a body in the main asteroid belt when it explored the giant asteroid Vesta from 2011 to 2012.
Participants in the teleconference will be:
- Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Carol Raymond, Dawn mission deputy principal investigator, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
To obtain call-in information, reporters must contact Dwayne Brown at 202-358-1726 or dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov no later than 1:45 p.m. EST.
The teleconference will be streamed live on NASA’s website, at:
http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
For information about NASA's Dawn mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/dawn
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