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Gallery: Dawn spacecraft orbits giant asteroid - first photo

UPDATE - NASA released the first image of Vesta taken by the Dawn spacecraft after it entered into orbit around the planetoid which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
By Andy Smith, Contributor
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NASA reports that its Dawn spacecraft has sent back the first photo since it entered into orbit on Friday around the giant asteroid Vesta. The asteroid lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter - 117 million miles from Earth. It took Dawn almost four years to reach Vesta and will spend about a year studying the asteroid which is thought to be the source of many meteors which have struck Earth. Then, it will complete its mission by traveling to the dwarf planet Ceres.

NASA scientists will spend about three weeks getting the Dawn spacecraft accustomed to its new surroundings around Vesta before beginning its study of the giant asteroid in earnest.

Here's the first photo of Vesta returned by Dawn after it reached orbit.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

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"We are beginning the study of arguably the oldest extant primordial surface in the solar system," said Dawn principal investigator Christopher Russell from the University of California, Los Angeles.

This anaglyph image of the asteroid Vesta was taken on July 9, 2011 by the framing camera instrument aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

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Vesta is about 300 miles in diameter with a surface area about the size of Arizona.

Here is Vesta compared in size to other know rocks in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Vesta spins around once every 5 hours, 20 minutes. It's nearly a sphereoid shape with a huge chunk blasted from its south pole.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JAXA/ESA

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Here is a recent photo from Dawn, taken on July 9 from about 26,000 miles. Each pixel represents about 2.4 miles.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

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Here's how Dawn looked in NASA's "clean room" as it was being prepared for launch.

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A Delta II rocket sent Dawn on its journey on Sept. 27, 2007, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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This artist's conception shows what Dawn would look like as it moves between its two targets, Vesta and Ceres.

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This what was Vesta looked like from the Dawn spacecraft from about 62,000 miles on July 1.

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This image of Vesta was taken from about 95,000 miles on June 24.

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