On March 5, NASA's Dawn spacecraft will finally orbit the mysterious dwarf planet Ceres after travelling into deep space for two and a half years.

Ceres is the largest body found in the asteroid belt located between the Red Planet and Jupiter. The probe has been targeting Ceres since September 2012 after it made its closest approach t Vesta, which is the asteroid belt's second largest body.

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Dawn's arrival at Ceres will be discreet and low key compared to other spaceflight missions, since the spacecraft uses superefficient low thrust ion engines during a slow and steady approach to the planet.

This unique ion propulsion system has been effective in placing the spacecraft along Ceres' orbit from its original speedy orbit around the Sun, according to Dawn Mission Director and Chief Engineer Marc Rayman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

This method involves letting the probe creep up on the dwarf planet when they meet. Dawn is also traveling slowly enough that it matches Ceres' orbit so gravitational forces from the dwarf planet can gently reel in the spacecraft, says Rayman.

NASA's Dawn mission costs US $466 million. The probe was launched in September to study Vesta and Ceres that are 330 miles in diameter and 590 miles wide, respectively.

When Dawn gathers data and observations from these large bodies, scientists hope the data will finally explain how planets were formed during the solar system's earlier stages.

Dawn orbited Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012 and if Dawn reaches Ceres on Thursday night as planned, it will become the first probe to orbit two celestial objects beyond the Earth and the Moon. Dawn is slated to start scientific observations from April 23 until June 2016.

Scientists are curious about Ceres since it's known to possess a massive amount of frozen water underneath its surface. Lakes or oceans of liquid water lurk underneath Ceres and signs of life might be found here.

Dawn is not equipped with scientific instruments to measure signs of life but it will give scientists their first detailed glimpse of the planet.

To date, there are two and probably more mysterious bright spots seen by Ceres in the past weeks. This mystery will be unraveled as soon as the spacecraft approaches the dwarf planet.

TagsDawn Spacecraft Enters Orbit of Mysterious Dwarf Planet Ceres on Thursday, NASA, NASA Dawn spacecraft, ceres dwarf planet, Dawn spacecraft dwarf planet ceres NASA mysterious