LOS ANGELES — After a nearly eight-year journey, a NASA spacecraft on Friday flawlessly slipped into orbit around Ceres in the first visit to a dwarf planet.
The robotic Dawn craft will circle the dwarf planet for more than a year, exploring its surface and unraveling its mysteries.
“It went exactly the way we expected. Dawn gently, elegantly slid into Ceres’ gravitational embrace,” said Marc Rayman, chief engineer for the $473 million mission managed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Ceres is the second and final stop for Dawn, which launched in 2007 on a voyage to the main asteroid belt, a zone between Mars and Jupiter littered with rocky leftovers from the formation of the sun and planets about 4½ billion years ago.
Dawn will spend 16 months photographing the icy surface. It previously spent a year at Vesta exploring the asteroid and sending back stunning close-ups of its lumpy surface before cruising to Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt.
The 3 billion-mile trip was made possible by Dawn’s ion propulsion engines, which provide gentle yet constant acceleration and are more efficient than conventional thrusters.
As Dawn approached Ceres, it beamed back the best pictures ever taken of the dwarf planet. Some puzzling images revealed a pair of shiny patches inside a crater — signs of possible ice or salt.
Scientists hope to get a better glimpse of the spots when the spacecraft spirals closer to the surface. It also will study whether previously spotted plumes of water vapor continue to vent. “There are a lot of secrets that will be revealed,” said mission scientist Lucy McFadden.
The spacecraft glided into place at 4:39 a.m. Friday, and flight controllers received confirmation about an hour later. The maneuver occurred without a tense moment, unlike other captures that require braking to slow down.
![Newspaper advertisement offering reward for the return of an escaped man to his oppressors, Princess Anne, Maryland, April 1, 1861. Text reads: “0 Reward. Ranaway from the subscriber on Tuesday Morning, 26th Ultimo [last month], My negro boy calling himself Severn Black. The said negro is about 5 feet six inches in height, chesnut color, has a scar on his upperlip, downcast countenance when spoken to, blink-eyed, showing a great deal of white, long bushy hair, is about twenty years old, had on when he lefta [sic] blue fustian Jacket, pantaloons of a greyish color, blue striped shirt, a Black slouch hat and shoes nearly worn out. The above reward will be paid by me for the apprehension and delivery of the said negro in the county jail at Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland. April 1, 1861. Richard E. Snelling. Somerset Herald Print, Princess Anne, Md.’ The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 obliged citizens and lawmen of free zones to return escaped men to those whom they fled. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)](/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GettyImages-53262583-16x9-1.jpg?w=620 "GettyImages-53262583-16x9-1")
