Destination Dwarf Planet: Dawn Approaches Ceres
Text Version

[This video has no sound elements. The following text and animations appear onscreen.]

Text onscreen: NASA’s Dawn mission will be the first to explore a dwarf planet. The spacecraft, which uses ion propulsion, will arrive at Ceres on March 6, 2015.

Image description: The Dawn spacecraft appears traveling in outer space towards the Ceres planet. The sun glows in the distance.

Text onscreen: Ceres is the largest body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Image description: December 1, 2014 appears onscreen while video footage zooms in on the Ceres planet. The image of the planet gets clearer as the camera zooms closer. The date changes from December 1, 2014 to January 15, 2015 and continues to change about every 10 days as the camera gets closer to the planet. Finally, at its closest view on February 25, 2015 the craters on the planet can be seen while half of the planet is covered by shadow.

Text onscreen: Ceres rotates in this sped-up movie take by Dawn from a distance of 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers) on February 19, 2015.

Image description: The close-up video of the planet continues as Ceres rotates. Bright spots can be seen at various locations on the surface of the planet.

Text onscreen: Dawn will begin to orbit the dwarf planet on March 6, after being captured by its gravity.

Image description: February 15, 2015 appears above an animation showing the Dawn spacecraft preparing to orbit the planet. Dawn slowly circles the planet and then takes a sharp curve back toward the planet and begins a vertical orbit.