Humans just made history by reaching an icy dwarf planet for the first time
Since it was launched in 2007, Dawn has been accelerating through space and on Friday morning at 9:39 am ET, NASA confirmed that the spacecraft had reached its final: the dwarf planet Ceres.
At that time, however, it was classified as a planet, and then later as an asteroid. Today, it meets the criteria for a relatively new class of objects called dwarf planets - a classification that includes the much maligned and very loved Pluto.
Ceres is the second object that Dawn has now orbited.
This is made possible by its ion propulsion system, which gave the spacecraft enough power to escape the gravitational grip of Vesta when it orbited in 2011, and continue on through space toward Ceres.