As I was reading through Chapter 12 I came across text on the Dawn Mission and my curiosity led me to searching for more! For something I hadn’t heard of before, its profound contributions and interesting factoids are beyond astonishing!

I am a huge – and I mean HUGE – Star Wars fanatic, and to learn that the TIE fighter from the original trilogy is even remotely related to real science is news to me. TIE stands for twin ion engine, a factoid that I’m ashamed to admit is news to me. And what’s cooler is that the Dawn spacecraft uses ion engines and is apparently the only spacecraft to orbit two “deep-space destinations.” The accomplishments of Dawn are just as impressive as they are interesting; from finding organics on Ceres to revamping or reaffirming perspectives on solar system formation, and world diversity and geography! Ceres could be geologically active, dwarfs could have (or have had) oceans, the list goes on!

I encourage anyone to take a look at Nasa’s website on it, which is hyperlinked in the above image’s caption!