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martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

I found this wonderfully readable and informative story on The Conversation: After Eight Years, NASA's Dawn Probe Brings Dwarf Planet Ceres Into Closest Focus [theconversation.com] — and it was written by "the mission director and chief engineer on Dawn at JPL." (Nothing against journalists, but sometimes they don't quite understand what they are writing about — and I should know, as an Editor on SN, I've done that myself!)

More than a thousand times farther from Earth than the moon, farther even than the sun, an extraordinary extraterrestrial expedition is taking place. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft [nasa.gov] is exploring dwarf planet Ceres, which orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter. The probe has just reached the closest point it ever will, and is now beginning to collect its most detailed pictures and other measurements on this distant orb.

Ceres is a remnant from the dawn of our solar system [nasa.gov] nearly 4.6 billion years ago. All the data Dawn is now sending back will provide insight into Ceres' history and geology, including the presence of water, past or present. Scientists believe that by studying Ceres, we can unlock some of the secrets of the epoch in which planets, including our own, formed.

But this mission isn’t only for scientists. Discovering the nature of an uncharted world is a thrill that can be shared by anyone who has ever gazed up at the night sky in wonder, been curious about the universe and Earth’s place in it, or felt the lure of a bold adventure into the unknown.

I happen to fall into all those categories. I fell in love with space at the age of four, and I knew by the fourth grade that I wanted to earn a doctorate in physics. (It was a few more years before I did.) My passion for the exploration of space and the grandeur of scientific discovery and understanding has never wavered. It’s a dream come true for me to be the mission director and chief engineer on Dawn at JPL.

Fun fact: Ceres has a diameter of about 600 miles (~ 1000 km) implying that its surface area, if laid flat, would cover a third of the continental USA. It will be a while before all of the data is accumulated and even longer for it to be downloaded and analyzed, so keep your eyes peeled for new revelations about Ceres.

I grew up in the age of Apollo and, like the story's author, am fascinated about astronomy. Not to the extent to make it my career, but I did take a few courses in college. The mind-boggling immensity of space, the incredible forces at play, the diversity of objects "out there" never cease to inspire curiosity and wonder in me.

I'm hoping there are Soylentils who share this fascination. Stories about space don't seem to get many comments, so I wonder how much interest there actually is in such stories. If you'd like to see more stories about space, please mention it in a comment.

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