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The Dawn spacecraft will make an eight-year journey to the main
asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in an effort to significantly increase our
understanding of the conditions and processes acting at the solar system�s earliest epoch by examining the geophysical
properties of the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres.
Evidence shows that Vesta and Ceres have distinct characteristics
and, therefore, must have followed different evolutionary paths. By observing
both, with the same set of instruments, scientists hope to develop an understanding of the transition from the rocky inner
regions, of which Vesta is characteristic, to the icy outer regions, of which Ceres is representative.
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