NASA Dawn Spacecraft is the First Ever to Orbit Dwarf Planet Ceres (VIDEO)

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has officially entered orbit around the dwarf planet, Ceres, as of 7:39 a.m. EST on Friday, March 6. This is the first time any spacecraft has ever achieved a successful orbit around a dwarf planet.

"Since its discovery in 1801, Ceres was known as a planet, then an asteroid and later a dwarf planet," said Marc Rayman, Dawn chief engineer and mission director at JPL, in a news release. "Now, after a journey of 3.1 billion miles and 7.5 years, Dawn calls Ceres, home."

Dawn is the first ever spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet. But that's not its only achievement; it is also the first to orbit another target: Vesta. From 2011 to 2012, Dawn explored the giant asteroid Vesta, delivering new insights and thousands of images from that distant world.

"We feel exhilarated," said Chris Russell, principal investigator of the Dawn mission. "We have much to do over the next year and a half, but we are now on station with ample reserves, and a robust plan to obtain our science objectives."

The most recent images from Dawn were taken on March 1. They show Ceres as a crescent, mostly in shadow since the spacecraft's trajectory put it on a side of Ceres that faces away from the sun until mid-April. When Dawn emerges from Ceres' dark side, though, it will deliver the sharpest images to date of the dwarf planet.

The fact that Dawn has now entered orbit around Ceres means that scientists can expect new information about the dwarf planet. This heralds a new point of research and discovery concerning Ceres.

For more information about Dawn, visit NASA's website.

Want to learn more? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.

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