* Astronomy

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RE: Vesta

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The spinning asteroid called Vesta

Vesta Rotates

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Close-up View of Vesta's South Pole Region

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

In this image, obtained by Dawn's framing camera, a peak at Vesta's south pole is seen at the lower right. The grooves in the equatorial region are about 10 kilometres wide. The image was taken on July 24, 2011, from a distance of about 5,200 kilometres.
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NASA's Dawn's Spacecraft Views Dark Side of Vesta

Dawn took this image over Vesta's northern hemisphere after the spacecraft completed its first passage over the dark side of the giant asteroid. It is northern hemisphere winter on Vesta now, so its north pole is in deep shadow.
The Dawn science team is working to determine the significance of the distinct features in this image, which include large grooves or ridges extending for great distances around Vesta.
This image was taken by Dawn's framing camera on July 23, from a distance of 5,200 kilometres.

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Image of Vesta Captured by Dawn on July 18, 2011

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 18, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 10,500 kilometres away from Vesta. The smallest detail visible is about 1.2 miles (2.0 km).

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Dawn Spacecraft Beams Back New Photo

Dawn took this image during its current orbit of Vesta, travelling from the day side to the night side. The large structure near the south pole that showed up so prominently in previous images is visible in the center of the illuminated surface. Compared to other images, this one shows more of the surface beneath the spacecraft in the shadow of night. Vesta turns on its axis once every five hours and 20 minutes.
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Asteroid Vesta reveals its scars

Nasa's Dawn spacecraft has returned some remarkable new imagery of the asteroid Vesta, now that it is safely in orbit around the 530km-wide rock.
The pictures reveal the ancient body's craters, slopes and grooves in detail that is far beyond the vision of Earth-bound telescopes, including Hubble.
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NASA Dawn Spacecraft Returns Close-Up Image of Vesta

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned the first close-up image after beginning its orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta. On Friday, July 15, Dawn became the first probe to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The image taken for navigation purposes shows Vesta in greater detail than ever before. When Vesta captured Dawn into its orbit, there were approximately 16,000 kilometres between the spacecraft and asteroid. Engineers estimate the orbit capture took place at 10 p.m. PDT Friday, July 15 (1 a.m. EDT Saturday, July 16).
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Strong chaos induced by close encounters with Ceres and Vesta

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing a new study of the orbital evolution of minor planets Ceres and Vesta, a few days before the flyby of Vesta by the Dawn spacecraft. A team of astronomers found that close encounters among these bodies lead to strong chaotic behaviour of their orbits, as well as of the Earth's eccentricity. This means, in particular, that the Earth's past orbit cannot be reconstructed beyond 60 million years.
Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing numerical simulations of the long-term evolution of the orbits of minor planets Ceres and Vesta, which are the largest bodies in the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres is 6000 times less massive than the Earth and almost 80 times less massive than our Moon. Vesta is almost four times less massive than Ceres. These two minor bodies, long thought to peacefully orbit in the asteroid belt, are found to affect their large neighbours and, in particular, the Earth in a way that had not been anticipated. This is showed in the new astronomical computations released by Jacques Laskar from Paris Observatory and his colleagues.
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Image of Vesta Captured by Dawn on July 9, 2011

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of the giant asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on July 9, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 41,000 kilometres away from Vesta, which is also considered a protoplanet because it is a large body that almost became a planet. Each pixel in the image corresponds to roughly 3.8 kilometres.

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