Getting closer: Vesta is missing a big chunk out of its south polar region
Posted on 06/13/2011 3:10:32 PM PDT by decimon
The Dawn spacecraft is starting to get an eye-full of the Vesta asteroid.
The probe expects to reach the 530km-wide body in late July, whereupon it will go into orbit around the rock.
Vesta is what scientists term a protoplanet - a body that never acquired the proportions of "grown-up" planets such as Earth and Mars.
It is nonetheless an impressive object - the second most massive asteroid in the belt of rocky debris that orbits between Mars and Jupiter.
Nasa's (US space agency) Dawn satellite will be spending about 12 months at Vesta before moving on to Ceres which, at 950km in diameter, is by far the largest and most massive body in the asteroid belt.
The new images released on Monday are a big improvement on the dot-like navigation shots released last month that were used to fine-tune the probe's approach to the rock.
The latest pictures were acquired on 1 June, from a distance of about 480,000km. Vesta's irregular form is now unmistakeable. In the images, one pixel corresponds to 45km on Vesta's surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Vestal verging ping.
vestal virgins?
We're gonna have to watch this show!
Vesta, formal designation 4 Vesta, is an asteroid that is thought to be a remnant protoplanet with a differentiated interior[10][11] and a mean diameter of about 530 km.[1] Comprising an estimated 9% of the mass of the entire asteroid belt,[12] it is the second-most-massive object in the belt after the dwarf planet Ceres. It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on March 29, 1807,[1] and named after the Roman virgin goddess of home and hearth, Vesta.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Vesta
Originally Ceres and Vesta were given full planet status (like Pluto) but got demoted as more and more objects were discovered in the asteroid belt. Ceres was discovered on January 1, 1801, the first day of the Nineteenth Century. Finding it again, months later, after it disappeared into the glare of the the sun was the first application of the method of least squares, by a 23 year old Gauss, coinventor of the method.
thanks for the info,...btw, I lived in Ma for 26 years.
Looks like a russet potato.
Ha! Exactly. It’s a well cooked russet potato. A space spud. A pomme non de terre.
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Photo’s description: Comparison of the sizes of asteroids (1) Ceres, (4) Vesta, (243) Ida, (433) Eros, and (951) Gaspra, Vesta, Ceres, and Mars. (public domain)
big version:
http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/screen/opo0527b.jpg
bigger version:
http://www.free-photos.biz/images/nature/natural_hazards/asteroid_size_comparison.jpg
Vestal's got virgins?
NOT ANYMORE
Vesta is
Yes,..a very large Russet potato.
If it should break out of orbit and crash into the moon cheese, anticipate a shower of chive meteors in its proximity.
Damn that Bill Clinton. He's been messing with Vesta too??
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