It is incredibly coincidental but today Bungie the game maker released an update for their hit title destiny that involves an update of their astroid belt!! "the reef"
Check out more about it on bungee.net in the destiny section of the forums.
This forum posting however is informing you that NASA has released a new color photo of the largest object in the asteroid belt the dwarf planet "Ceres" today!!
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4548
The Dawn mission features ion propulsion which is state-of-the-art and is only the second ever to use this technology.
Ion Technology is the future of space travel and could propel us to places we've never gone before!
4.5 billion years ago the Big Bang occurred and 4.3 billion years ago the solar system formed.
Debate still rages about whether the asteroid belt is actually the remnants of an ancient protoplanet destroyed at the founding of the solar system or is it just the remnants of space material that was unable to form into a planet due to gravity between Mars and Jupiter.
The Dawn mission hopes to shed new light on life in our solar system and how are solar system was formed. The presence of water or life on the planet CERES could change how we view the universe.
With the discovery of "water bears" tartigrades being able to survive in space for over 10 years in crypto hibernation [u][b][b][i]tardigrade see - the first animal ever to survive in outer space [/i][/b][/b][/u]
it is believed that we are closer to discovering how Earth life first started on earth and the possibility of life on other planets.
For more information please check out Dawn and the NASA homepage and also you can read more on the Destiny update on bungie.net