The Dawn mission is on its way to the asteroid belt, and is on course to rendezvous with its first target, Vesta, in February 2011. As a part of that journey, Dawn received a gravity assist from Mars as it flew past the planet on February 17, 2009. During its closest approach, this framing camera image was snapped of Mars' surface near the terminator at daybreak. The Planetary Science Institute manages Dawn's Gamma-Ray and Neutron Detector (PI, Tom Prettyman), which will map the elemental composition of the surfaces of Vesta and Ceres to determine how they formed and evolved. [Read more]