Posted on 09/19/2012 6:23:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Next stop: Ceres. Last week the robotic Dawn spacecraft ended its year-long mission to asteroid Vesta, becoming the first spacecraft ever to visit this far off world located between Mars and Jupiter, in the Solar System's main asteroid belt. Many of the best images taken by Dawn at Vesta have been compiled into the above encompassing view. Vesta shows evidence of being a leftover from the early years of our Solar System, a building block for rocky planets like Earth. Vesta's ancient surface shows heavy cratering and long troughs likely created by huge impacts. The minor planet's low gravity allows for surface features like huge cliffs and a large mountain that reaches twice the height of Earth's Mount Everest, visible at the image bottom. Vesta, however, spanning about 500 kilometers across, is only the second most massive object in the asteroid belt. And so, two weeks ago, Dawn fired its gentle ion rockets and has begun chasing the most massive: Ceres. If everything goes as planned, Dawn will reach Ceres in 2015. Ceres looks quite different to the distant telescope -- but what will Dawn find?
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA, MPS, DLR, IDA]
I’m looking forward to Ceres. I suspect it looks more like a small planet or moon.
ping
Another big airlesss rock far, far away?
"I got caramel popcorn."
"I got a rock..."
Very interesting. TYVM, Sunken Civ.
I think of it as something to live for. When I was a kid I looked forward to Halley's comet in 1986. It was kind of a bust! Of course, there were the Pioneers and Voyagers, but I don't recall a sense of anticipation for them. I just took them as they came. Then Galileo at Jupiter in 1994. We had the comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp around that time, as well. Then Y2K of course, and then Cassini Huygens in 2004. I wasn't looking forward to Dawn's arrival at Vesta, because I didn't know about it! But I was quite pleased to follow its mission upon arrival. So now, another wait. I have to say that the NEAR mission to Eros in 2001 was most exciting, being the first close look at a large asteroid, even though Vesta is much more intrinsically interesting. Well, so now we wait 'til 2015, although Mars remains busy.
I suspect it looks more like a small planet or moon.
It is certainly more nearly spherical, but I think its topography should resemble Vesta's pretty closely.
Where is the animated gif?
It’s really cool to see
We’re also going to get our first look at Pluto in 2015.
That sounds Ceres.
Funny, it’s gray, for some reason I thought Vesta was maroon.
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