GEOL 212 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Olivine, Semi-Major And Semi-Minor Axes, Geochronology
27 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
Dawn is also a technological breakthrough: the first planetary exploration vehicle to use xenon ion thrusters, capable of sustaining low accelerations over long periods of time. It is the first spacecraft ever to enter orbit around a solar system object, leave that orbit, and travel to enter orbit around another object. Asteroids are mostly irregularly shaped, heavily cratered, and covered in a dusty regolith, indicating that they are geologically dead. Thus, at the terminator - the boundary between day and night - positively charged dust particles levitate by repelling one another electrostatically, then flow toward the negatively charged night side. After two years of study by the dawn mission, 4 vesta begins to come into focus. 4 vesta"s specs: mass: 28% that of 1 ceres and 0. 00434% that of earth, density: 3. 456 kg/m3 (surprisingly dense - between density of the moon and io. , semimajor axis: 2. 36 au.
