NASA’s Dawn mission slips into orbit at dwarf planet Ceres

After a multiyear journey, excitement is building as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is zooming ever closer to Pluto, a dwarf planet that's a member of a class of icy bodies called the Kuiper Belt Objects. But that's not the only dwarf that's getting the space agency's attention. A spacecraft called Dawn, launched just a year later, is turning its attention to a dwarf planet after a convoluted voyage through the inner Solar System.

You may recall Dawn from our extensive coverage of its visit to the asteroid Vesta. It entered orbit of that body in 2011 and spent over a year studying its composition. Dawn then fired up its ion engines and headed off through the asteroid belt to the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt.

After a gradual approach, NASA announced that Dawn successfully entered orbit yesterday. This marks the first time that one of its missions entered orbit around two different bodies, as well as the first time anyone has put something in orbit around a dwarf planet.