Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Vesta Rocks

NASA ^ | December 10, 2011 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: These colorful images are of thin slices of meteorites viewed through a polarizing microscope. Part of the group classified as HED (Howardite, Eucrite, Diogenite) meteorites for their mineral content, they likely fell to Earth from 4 Vesta, the mainbelt asteroid currently being explored by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Why are they thought to be from Vesta? Because the HED meteorites have visible and infrared spectra that match the spectrum of that small world. The hypothesis of their origin on Vesta is also consistent with data from Dawn's ongoing observations. Excavated by impacts, the diogenites shown here would have originated deep within the crust of Vesta. Similar rocks are also found in the lower crust of planet Earth. A sample scale is indicated by the white bars, each 2 millimeters long.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Hap McSween (Univ. Tennessee), A. Beck and T. McCoy (Smithsonian Inst.)]

[SunkenCiv]

If these are off Vesta, shouldn't they be maroon?

LOL, I kill me.

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops, forgot this:

Browse or share: Lastest lunar eclipse pictures

[left that other site]

LOL!

[cripplecreek]

Considering the number of rocks out there, I’m saying its a stretch to say for sure that this one came from Vesta. I would imagine a lot of the roids are pretty similar to one another.

[null and void]

</Asimov reference>

I thank my Lucky Starr it was so subtle.

(Does that deserve a French kiss?)...

[dsrtsage]

Definitely not from Vesta...It is obviously a chunk of Alderaan.

[bigheadfred]

You like to lick rocks too???

[null and void]

Well, I have a cousin who used to live in French Lick...

[bigheadfred]

Must be quite a family reunion. Everbody gets all lickered up....

[Waverunner]

Chek out these Vespa pictures with a similiar quadrilateral lattice struce on display.

[dr_lew]

I would imagine a lot of the roids are pretty similar to one another.

Congratulations on your healthy skepticism. Naturally one thinks that ones own skepticism is healthier than the next fellow's, but the classification of these meteorite types has a long standing history, which I'm inclined to accept.

I'll tell you my pet peeve, which is actually sort of a multipart pet peeve, about this Vesta mission. The main part is that the DAWN MISSION page seems to be playing to the crowd, and disrespecting the knowledgable fans. There's a lot of politics behind this, and I'm loath to think a bad thought about the DAWN MISSION team, even if I do it once in a while. The second part is the lack of interest by the press. Consider this APOD, it's old stuff! What about all the amazing findings being released by the DAWN MISSION team? Oh yeah, refer to the first part of the pet peeve. "These pretty pictures are very meaningful to us actual scientists." Thank you sir, may I have another.