Close-ups of Vesta, our second-heaviest asteroíd

[quote]NASA's Dawn míssion has returned new images from orbit around Vesta, revealing a diverse and dramatic landscape.

Dawn entered orbit around the giant asteroíd Vesta on 16 July. Vesta is the second-heaviest asteroíd in the solar system and may offer new insights into the early stages of planet formation, since meteorites from Vesta suggest the giant asteroíd formed before Earth and the other planets.

At a NASA press conference on Monday, the Dawn team showed off a new set of detailed images taken from Vesta orbit. The images show a varied and surprising landscape and reveal details as small as 500 metres across – less than one-thousandth Vesta's diameter.

Read more @ http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2 ... close.html

NASA's Dawn Spacécraft Begins Science Orbits of Vesta

[quote]PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, the first ever to orbit an object in the main asteroíd belt, is spiraling towards its first of four intensive science orbits. That initial orbit of the rocky world Vesta begins Aug. 11, at an altitude of nearly 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) and wíll provide in-depth analysis of the asteroíd. Vesta is the brightest object in the asteroíd belt as seen from Earth and is thought to be the source of a large number of meteorites that fall to Earth.

This image was taken at a distance of 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers). Images from Dawn’s framing camera, taken for navigation purposes and as preparation for scientific observations, are revealing the first surface details of the giant asteroíd. These images go all the way around Vesta, since the giant asteroíd turns on its axis once every five hours and 20 minutes.

“Now that we are in orbit around one of the last unexplored worlds in the inner solar system, we can see that it’s a unique and fascinating place,” said Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer and míssion manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Read more @ http://spacefellowship.com/news/art2634 ... vesta.html