The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dawn spacecraft will arrive at the dwarf planet Ceres in a few months.

Marc Rayman, mission Director and Chief Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says the journey will introduce us all to a strange new world. His excitement is contagious as he talks about learning more about the dwarf planet. He says everyone should be excited by this.

Like Us on Facebook

"Everyone who has ever gazed in wonder at the night sky, everyone who yearns to know what lies beyond the confines of our humble home, everyone who longs for adventure and seeks to peer beyond the horizon, and everyone awed by the mystery, the grandeur, and the immensity of the cosmos can share in this."

The Dawn mission is closing in on the mysterious unknown world in the asteroid belt. So far, we've only had glimpses of this enigmatic dwarf using the Hubble Space Telescope.

Dawn will arrive at Ceres on March 6. It will enter the dwarf planet's orbit at an initial altitude of 13,500 kilometers for a first full characterization.

Afterwards, it will explore Ceres from survey orbit at 4,400 km. Dawn will then descend to an orbit only 1,470 km above Ceres. Dawn will use its extraordinary ion propulsion system to change its orbit..

This isn't the first celestial body the spacecraft will visit. In July 2011, it entered the orbit of asteroid Vesta for a one-year exploration. Dawn will become the first spacecraft to orbit two separate extraterrestrial bodies.

Rayman says the mission is an exciting opportunity to study an exotic, alien world of ice and rock. Scientists hope to discover how the large inventory of water, mostly frozen but some liquid, affects the dwarf planet.

Ceres is the first dwarf planet discovered. It is the largest body between the sun and Pluto a spacecraft hasn't yet visited.

TagsCeres, dawn, NASA, dwarf planet