NASA's Dawn spacecraft became the first mission to achieve orbit around a dwarf planet last week when it was captured by Ceres’ gravity at 4:39 a.m. PST (7:39 a.m. EST) on Friday.
"Since its discovery in 1801, Ceres was known as a planet, then an asteroid and later a dwarf planet," said Marc Rayman, Dawn chief engineer and mission director at JPL, in a prepared statement. "Now, after a journey of 3.1 billion miles (4.9 billion kilometers) and 7.5 years, Dawn calls Ceres, home."
The Dawn mission "allows us to look back in time to see how terrestrial planets are put together," director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division Jim Green said during a media briefing about the achievement.
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