Dawn has the Giant Asteroid Vesta Departed

Dawn Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. - Mission controllers received confirmation NASA's Dawn spacecraft that has escaped from the gentle gravitational grip of the giant asteroid Vesta. Dawn is now officially on its way to its second destination, the dwarf planet Ceres.

Dawn departed from Vesta at about 11:26 pm PDT on Sept... 4 (2:26 am EDT on Sept.. 5). Communications from the spacecraft via NASA's Deep Space Network That confirmed the departure and the spacecraft is now traveling Toward Ceres.

A Family Portrait of Galaxies

Two very different galaxies attribute in this family portrait taken by the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope, together forming a exclusive galaxy pair called Arp 116. The image shows the dramatic differences in size, structure and color spiral and elliptical galaxies between.

Arp 116 is composed of a giant elliptical galaxy Messier known as 60, and a much smaller spiral galaxy, NGC 4647.

Mars's dramatic climate variations are driven by the Sun

On Mars's poles there are ice caps of ice and dust layers with that reproduce to past climate variations on Mars. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have related the layers in the ice cap on Mars's north pole to variations in Solar insulation on Mars, the first dated THUS climate Established history for Mars, where ice and dust accumulation has been driven by variations in insulation. The results are published in the scientific journal, Icarus.