NASA closer to dwarf planet Ceres- Mackenzie McGregor

On Friday, NASA spacecraft, Dawn, shall near the dwarf planet Ceres in order to be pulled into the planet's orbit. The dwarf planet was discovered in 1801 and originally claimed to be a planet. Since astronomers during those times could not gaze upon the galaxy with the technology we have now, they could not determine if the object was round, a characteristic of planets. The label for Ceres was demoted to a mere asteroid due to the inability to check upon the roundness of the object. In 2006, Ceres was moved into the dwarf planet category along with 4 other presumed planets. The spacecraft Dawn was dispatched on September 27, 2007, and now shall complete its primary mission officially in June 2016. The images coming from this space capsule are breathtaking, but will end until April due to its location, which is the dark side of the planet. This new information shows the advancement of our technology from small telescopes used for constellations to large telescopes utilized for viewing asteroids, meteors, and the like to sending spacecrafts into our galaxy to discover what is outside of our small home called Earth. Hopefully with all of these new advancements, scientists can locate other planets similar to Earth and possibly discover any form of life amongst our vast galaxy.

 http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/02/us/dawn-spacecraft-ceres/index.html