Posted on 07/18/2011 10:15:54 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: What does the surface of asteroid Vesta look like? The brightest asteroid in the Solar System and the object which takes up about 10 percent of the entire mass of the main asteroid belt had never been seen up close before. Over the past few weeks, however, the robotic Dawn spacecraft became the first spacecraft ever to approach Vesta. A few days ago, just after attaining orbit, Dawn took the above image. Early images show Vesta to be an old and battered world, covered with craters, bulges, grooves, and cliffs. Studying Vesta may give clues to the formative years of our early Solar System, as the unusual world may be one of the largest remaining protoplanets. After a year of studying Vesta, Dawn is scheduled to leave orbit and, in 2015, approach the only asteroid-belt object that is larger: Ceres.
Poll: Which of these recently submitted images would make good future APODs?
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA, MPS, DLR, IDA]
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Awesome photo!
Oh wow! I always view the Astronomy Picture of the Day, just so your know. And appreciate seeing these of which some I e-mail to others I know have interest as well.
Thanks for your good work.
CW
Aaargh, most of the APOD contenders don’t show up on the poll page!
Thanks for posting this.
WAIT A SECOND!!
Wasn’t that the asteroid that killed us all in “Deep Impact?” Or “When Worlds Collide?” Or where the sort of young Obi Wan Kenobe hides from Jango Fett?
“When Worlds Collide” was a star and planet.
If that thing takes up 10% of the main asteroid belt, maybe that’s really Planet X.
I am looking forward to my opposite. If he is the opposite to me then he will be a liberal. But if his thinking is opposite of mine, he is still married to my ex-wife. So in Planet X there is symmetry.
A very bad case of acne. Get a very big tube of cortizone.
Everything in the solar system looks like there has been a war.
Well, I done voted. There are some fine pictures in your poll from a photographic standpoint and that’s what drives me. Good to see the number of votes you’re getting, though!
Meanwhile, this one is really nice. Thanks for what you do.
Well that's a first. My computer shows them all, and someone else's machine is being pesky.
Sorry you're having trouble, skr.
Ditto!
Thanks ct!
Shows what I call a nipple crater feature, very similar to, hmm, one of the moons of one of the gas giants. My memory just returned a 404 error. Anyway, it’s an impact feature from a single large event that apparently either left Vesta the lumpy potato it is today, orrrr, it smoothed it ouf from something really goofy looking.
My pleasure, and thanks for the kind remarks.
I shouldn’t mention this, but I didn’t even see the link to that poll when I posted today’s APoD, around 1 am. I’d dozed off at the keyboard, must have been about 11:30pm, and slept sitting in this chair with my fingers on the keyboard. I woke up and was just aware enough to do the posting, the ping, and then shut down for the night.
Thanks ixtl!
“When Worlds Collide” is a very, very bad attempt at a sci-fi novel that nonetheless wound up selling so well the author was able to get work writing the sequel. And the sequel is even worse, although the best visceral description is in the second one (if memory serves). :’)
Spoiler for those who haven’t experienced the books — There are two planets, one is Earth-sized, the other is sufficiently large that the first one is in orbit around it. The larger is (of course) on a collision course with the Earth. it’s determined that after the larger body smashes the Earth into oblivion, the Earth-like one will get knocked free somehow and enter into a nice regular orbit right where the Earth used to be.
Quit laughing.
The plan is hatched to build a spacecraft capable of ferrying a hundred or so people to the smaller body. In the process of getting the necessary materials, enough of one crucial unobtainium type metal is found to build a second and larger (no explanation) ship, enabling the entire group working on the project to be saved. In the movie version, a huge fight breaks out among those whose names didn’t get drawn, and while they’re fighting outside, somehow the right people squeeze by, saying excuse me, get aboard, the doors are closed, and the rocket takes off.
Seriously, the movie sucks so hard it’s a must-see.
In the book the rocket genius has two pilot seats, again, no explanation is offered, one on each end of the craft. He uses the first one during the launch from Earth, then walks the length of the craft to fire up the *other engine* (one one each end) to make the pinpoint landing on the new Earth.
Steady, boys and girls.
In the movie, there’s a hilarious scene where the pilot (just the one engine and cockpit in the movie) looks down at the dashboard and notes that “we still have a quarter tank left!”
In the sequel “After Worlds Collide” it turns out that the Germans (who are atheist socialists with pop-bottle-bottom glasses) had built an escape rocket of their own, but had curiously enough failed to bring along any women. Hiilarity ensues, worthy of a Von Stuck painting.
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