Planetary Society logo
  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

Dawn’s interplanetary trajectory (July 2016)

Dawn’s interplanetary trajectory (July 2016)
Dawn’s interplanetary trajectory (July 2016) Dawn's trajectory through the solar system, starting when it departed from Earth in 2007. Dawn's orbit around the sun is shown in blue. When the spacecraft is in orbit around Vesta or Ceres, its trajectory is the same color as their heliocentric orbits, which are bold when Dawn is accompanying them around the sun. Dawn is carrying out its extended mission in Ceres' permanent gravitational embrace. We have seen Dawn's progress on this figure before, most recently on March 4. NASA / JPL-Caltech