NASA probe to visit asteroid

A NASA spacecraft is days away from a historic rendezvous with an asteroid the size of Arizona.

NASA’s Dawn probe should enter into orbit around Vesta on July 16, becoming the first spacecraft to visit the 330-mile-wide space rock — the second-largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn is expected to spend a year studying the space rock from above, marking the first time a spacecraft has ever made an extended visit to a large asteroid.

Scientists hope Dawn’s mission will help them learn about the early days of the solar system and the processes that formed planets such as Earth.