Astronomical Events Calendar: Dawn and Vesta United!

THE NEW MULTIMEDIA!! SEE THE LATEST OF VESTA HERE. (September 23, 2011)

*NEWS ALERT (August 12) JPL send us more images of Vesta, read more here. "The Dawn spacecraft has completed a graceful spiral into the first of four planned science orbits during the spacecraft's yearlong visit to Vesta. The spacecraft started taking detailed observations on Aug. 11 at 9:13 a.m. PDT (12:13 a.m. EDT), which marks the official start of the first science-collecting orbit phase at Vesta, also known as the survey orbit."

*NEWS ALERT (August 2) Dawn gives us more photos! Now we do see the true Vesta...

*NEWS ALERT (July 28, #2) New time for NASA to unveil Vesta at Press Conference: August 1!! Learn More here.

*NEWS ALERT (July 28) Dawn takes new photos of Vesta; traveling from the day side to the night side! Vesta turns on its axis every five hours and twenty minutes, so Dawn can get a good view of both sides during the regular earth-day. More features are better shown right on the terminator, as well. (Terminator is a term to tell where the day side ends and the night side begins or vice versa...) More here.

The latest news on Dawn, what is Vesta anyways? NEW PICS BELOW!

DAWN HAS FINALLY REACHED VESTA! CHEERS TO DAWN!

Dawn is coming soon! NEW DATES?

Will Vesta have moons? Read about it, just published. (July 8, 2011)

Book your calendars! Dawn will soon approach the orbit of beautiful, main-belt asteroid 4 Vesta; July 16, to be exact! This will be a great step in asteroid-belt exploration and 4 Vesta won't be the only minor planet visited, but in 2016, 1 Ceres will as well. Meanwhile, here are some pictures for you to enjoy. NASA confirms that:

NASA is expecting to release more images on a weekly basis, with more frequent images available once the spacecraft begins collecting science at Vesta.

JULY 24