Mar 06, 2015 02:59 PM EST
NASA Dawn Spacecraft 2015: Dawn Reaches Ceres Orbit, Will Lights Mystery Uncover? [PHOTO]

Only a few days ago, it was announced that the NASA Dawn spacecraft 2015 was nearing its next objective, reaching the orbit of the dwarf planet in only a few days' time - not long after scientists in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration discovered two new flickering lights coming from the planet.

As Food World News reported earlier this week, the NASA Dawn spacecraft 2015 mission saw the space probe gathering new information about the dwarf planet (which, along with Vesta, is the largest protoplanet on the asteroid belt) as it approached it further; later, NASA confirmed that scientists had spotted mysterious lights coming from the planet, though they didn't know what these might be.

According to USA Today, the NASA Dawn spacecraft 2015 mission reached Ceres' orbit this Friday March 6, as previously scheduled, all while controlled by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, a full 310 MILLION miles away from the current location of the space probe.

As is tradition in the new era of social media, the probe itself announced that the NASA Dawn spacecraft 2015 mission had reached its destination - with a series of tweets about reaching the planet's orbit, including one saying that there'd be no pictures of Ceres until April, since the probe is currently on the dwarf planet's dark side.

"In orbit & curious about the bright spots too! Will find out more as I get closer to #Ceres," said the mission's official Twitter account, accompanying the statement with a poster from the NASA Dawn spacecraft 2015 mission.

As Ars Technica reports, Dawn was launched in 2007, and its mission all along has been to study the two biggest protoplanets in the asteroid belt; after it was the first spacecraft ever to reach Vesta, now it calls Ceres its new home, and will bring back a lot of information on the planet for scientists and astronomy amateurs.

For now, the NASA Dawn spacecraft 2015 waves from millions of miles away, between Mars and Jupiter.

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