2015: The Year of the Dwarf Planet ?

[stevend]

During 2015 spacecraft will be orbiting both Pluto and Ceres.

Recently it was announced that New Horizons had woken up and will start sending pictures of Pluto from January 15th

http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons/on-plutos-doorstep-new-horizons-spacecraft-awakens-for-encounter/#.VIqpLsmo28D

and then this morning in my FB feed I get this; Dawn will start sending pictures of Ceres from January 13th

http://danspace77.com/2014/12/11/the-dawn-of-a-new-understanding-set-to-begin/

Exciting times.

[D4N]

Indeed it will be nice to have some close ups of these objects.

What amazes me though is that we can have craft orbiting these far flung objects and even land on a comet yet we have so little information on the closest planet to us.

I think Venus went into the too difficult box which is a shame as I'm sure that there is a lot it could teach us about Earth like planets around the habitable zone of a star.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

[stevend]

Additional: I am not sure New Horizons orbits Pluto, its closest path is on July 14th. Dawn enters orbit of Ceres in late March.

Note: Dawn will become not only the first spacecraft to visit both of Ceres and Vesta; it will become the first spacecraft in history to orbit two separate extraterrestrial planetary bodies.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

I'm looking forward to both of these.

Yes, New Horizons will be zipping past Pluto in a brief encounter, the designers forgot to install brakes. The good news is it will continue on to image another Kuiper belt object, Hubble found some promising candidates recently.

[stevend]

What amazes me though is that we can have craft orbiting these far flung objects and even land on a comet yet we have so little information on the closest planet to us. I think Venus went into the too difficult box which is a shame as I'm sure that there is a lot it could teach us about Earth like planets around the habitable zone of a star.

ESA's Venus Express orbiter has been there for 8 years, but it seems to have run out of fuel. https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/geekquinox/venus-mission-is-about-to-end-in-a-blaze-of-glory-210733378.html