Vesta and Ceres: Insights from the Dawn Mission for the Origin of the Solar System

Description

The NASA Dawn mission, launched in 2007, aimed to visit two of the most massive protoplanets of the main asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. The aim was to further our understanding of the earliest days of the Solar System, and compare the two bodies to better understand their formation and evolution. This book summarises state-of-the-art results from the mission, and discusses the implications for our understanding not only of the asteroid belt but the entire Solar System. It comprises of three parts: Part 1 provides an overview of the main belt asteroids and provides an introduction to the Dawn mission; Part 2 presents key findings from the mission; and Part 3 discusses how these findings provide insights into the formation and evolution of the Solar System. This is a definitive reference for academic researchers and professionals of planetary science, asteroid science and space exploration.

Simone Marchi is a Principal Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He has been involved in several space missions and is the Deputy Project Scientist for the NASA Lucy mission, co-investigator for the NASA Psyche mission, co-investigator for instruments on board ESA BepiColombo and JUICE missions. He was co-investigator for the Dawn mission and associate scientist for instruments on board ESA Rosetta. He has won multiple awards including the Paolo Farinella Prize (2017), NASA's Susan Mahan Neibur Early Career Award (2014), and several Group Achievement Awards from NASA and ESA. Carol A. Raymond is a Principal Scientist at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Lab. She has been involved in mission and instrument leadership for NASA and program science support at JPL. She was the Deputy Principal Investigator on the NASA Dawn Discovery Mission and Principal Investigator of the Europa Magnetometer System (ICEMAG) for the NASA Europa Clipper mission. Her research focuses on geophysics and interiors of small bodies and moons, and magnetic fields in the Solar System. She has received multiple awards including three NASA Exceptional Public Achievement Medals (2013, 2016, 2019), the Shoemaker Award from the American Geophysical Union (2018), and the National Aeronautic Association Collier Award to the Dawn Flight Team (2015). Christopher T. Russell is a Distinguished Professor in the Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences department at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was the Principal Investigator of NASA's Dawn ion-propelled mission to Vesta and Ceres. He has been awarded the American Geophysical Union Macelwane Award and Fleming medal, COSPAR's Space Science Award, NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (2012) and Distinguished Public Service Medal (2017), and the National Aeronautic Association Collier Award to the Dawn Flight Team (2015). He has built and operated instruments on many space missions.