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Dawn is a space probe launched by NASA on September 27, 2007, with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets in the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 16, 2011, completing a 14-month survey mission before departing for Ceres in late 2012. It reached Ceres in March 2015 and remains in orbit around the dwarf planet. Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies, the first to visit either Vesta or Ceres, and the first to explore a dwarf planet. The mission's goal is to better understand the conditions and processes of the early Solar System by studying two of the largest protoplanets that have remained relatively intact since their formation. The primary scientific question Dawn aims to answer is how size and water influence the evolution of planets.
