MULTIMEDIA

This image from May 3, 2011, shows the first, unprocessed image obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft of the giant asteroid Vesta in front of a background of stars

This image from May 3, 2011, processed to show the true size of the giant asteroid Vesta, shows Vesta in front of a spectacular background of stars

Image of Ceres, Dawn's second destination, acquired by the Framing Camera during a routine check on July 20, 2010 as it was almost 500 million kilometers (nearly 310 million miles) from Ceres

The Framing Camera is the scientific imaging system of the Dawn Mission

Flight model of the Framing Camera for the Dawn mission before the last systems test at Max planck Institute for Solar System Exploration

On the space probe, the camera is completely isolate for thermal reasons

View in the southern constellation Carina acquired December 13, 2007 as part of characterization tests of the Framing Camera. The false-color view is a composite of images at 430 nm (violet), 650 nm (red), and 980 nm (infrared). The cluster of stars in the center is NGC 3532, and the nebula in the lower right is the Eta Carina Nebula (NGC 3372)

A star field in the constellation Cepheus is a composite of two 600-second exposures by the Framing Camera acquired during tests on December 3, 2007. The following figures (see a and b) show more about the stars in this image

a) A star field in the constellation Cepheus with stellar magnitudes called out

b) A star field in the constellation Cepheus with the names of the stars

This movie shows the Framing Camera's view of Vega on December 3-4, 2007. Images were taken as the spacecraft slewed the camera's field of view

Figure 1: On October 18, 2007, during its first operation in space, Dawn's Framing Camera imaged a star field as part of a set of tests. This figure combines four 30-second exposures

Figure 2: When the FC images used to make Figure 1 were acquired, the spacecraft orientation placed the camera's field of view in the part of the sky shown in this chart, centered at RA = 8h 46m, dec = 24 deg

Each image on this High Resolution Stereo Camera Image Composite (HRSC) mosaic is of the same location observed by Dawn's Framing Camera when it flew by Mars to complete the spacecraft's gravity assist maneuver on February 17, 2009