Dawn enters new mapping orbit

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has spiraled down to a lower orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta.  This High Altitude Mapping Orbit (HAMA) is four times closer than the previous survey orbit.  In this orbit, the average distance from the spacecraft to the Vesta surface is 420 miles (680 kilometers).
The spacecraft will operate in the same basic manner as it did in the survey orbit. When Dawn is over Vesta's dayside, it will point its science instruments to the giant asteroid and acquire data, and when the spacecraft flies over the nightside, it will beam that data back to Earth.
Perhaps the most notable difference in the new orbit is the frequency with which Dawn circles Vesta. In survey orbit, it took Dawn three days to make its way around the asteroid. Now in HAMO, the spacecraft completes the same task in a little over 12 hours. HAMO is scheduled to last about 30 Earth days, during which Dawn will circle Vesta more than 60 times. For about 10 of those 30 days, Dawn will peer straight down at the exotic landscape below it during the dayside passages. For about 20 days, the spacecraft will view the surface at multiple angles.

Scientists will combine the pictures to create topographic maps, revealing the heights of mountains, the depths of craters and the slopes of plains. This will help scientists understand the geological processes that shaped Vesta.