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NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA
NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 17. It was taken from a distance of about 9,500 miles from the asteroid Vesta.
Today NASA unveiled the first pictures of the asteroid Vesta as seen from an orbiting spacecraft. The pictures of the not-quite-round, 330-mile-wide (530-kilometer-wide) world were sent across a distance of 117 million miles (188 million kilometers). after the Dawn orbiter's successful weekend rendezvous.
Dawn went into orbit around 1 a.m. ET Saturday, at a distance of about 9,900 miles (16,000 kilometers) from Vesta. The pockmarked space rock ranks as the asteroid belt's No. 1 object in brightness, No. 2 in mass (behind the dwarf planet Ceres) and No. 3 in diameter (behind Ceres and the asteroid Pallas).
Size isn't everything: Scientists are interested in Vesta largely because it's thought to be made of the stuff that dominated the early solar system. Once upon a time, before they snowballed into the big planets we see today, most of the objects in our celestial neighborhood may well have looked like Vesta.
"We are beginning the study of arguably the oldest extant primordial surface in the solar system," the $466 million Dawn mission's principal investigator, Christopher Russell of the University of California at Los Angeles, said in today's image advisory. "This region of space has been ignored for far too long. So far, the images received to date reveal a complex surface that seems to have preserved some of the earliest events in Vesta's history, as well as logging the onslaught that Vesta has suffered in the intervening eons."
To me, Vesta's most interesting scar is the huge crater that was left on its southern end by an ancient impact. The crater is roughly the width of Ohio — so big that it looks more like a dent than a crater. The shattering impact threw off a large amount of debris. Astronomers estimate that about 6 percent of the meteorites that fall to Earth have come from the asteroid.
This stereo view of Vesta looks at the south polar crater straight on, which explains why the picture looks so flat, even through red-blue glasses. The terrain seems to be smooshed in by Vesta's blast from the past:
NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA
This anaglyph image of the south polar region of the asteroid Vesta was put together from two clear filter images, taken on July 9 by the framing camera instrument aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft.The anaglyph image shows the rough topography in the south polar area, including a large mountain, impact craters, grooves and steep scarps in three dimensions. Use red-blue glasses to view in 3-D.
Dawn's arrival at Vesta comes after nearly four years of cruising through deep space. "Dawn slipped gently into orbit with the same grace it has displayed during its years of ion thrusting through interplanetary space," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "It is fantastically exciting that we will begin providing humankind its first detailed view of one of the last unexplored worlds in the inner solar system."
During the next three weeks, the probe will settle into orbit, look around the asteroid to see if it has any moons, and get ready for a yearlong stretch of scientific observations. In 2012, Dawn will leave Vesta behind and start making its way toward a 2015 rendezvous with Ceres, a 590-mile-wide (950-kilometer-wide) world that has enough bigness and roundness to qualify as a dwarf planet. To find out where Ceres and other worlds stand nowadays, check out our interactive look at "the new solar system."
NASA / JPL-Caltech / JAXA / ESA
This composite shows the comparative sizes of eight asteroids that have been spotted by space probes.
More 3-D views from space:
- See the ultimate space shot in 3-D
- Explore the 3-D depths of Mars
- Get a fresh 3-D look at Phobos
- See a Martian crater in 3-D
- See a Martian milestone in 3-D
- See the Martian arctic in 3-D
- See more depths of Mars in 3-D
- 3-D delights from Mars
- Still more from Mars in 3-D
- Go on a space mission in 3-D
- See the moon's marvels in 3-D
- Saturn's moons in 3-D
- More from outer space in 3-D
- Fly through a nebula in 3-D
- Cosmic Log's 3-D-O-Rama
Got 3-D? NASA provides some suggestions for purchasing red-blue glasses via mail order, and you also may be able to find them at novelty stores. I've been known to send out 3-D glasses to Cosmic Log readers, and although I'm not quite ready for the next giveaway, you'll be the first to know if you "like" the Cosmic Log Facebook page. You can also connect with the Cosmic Log community by following @b0yle on Twitter. To learn even more about Ceres and other dwarf planets (including Pluto, my personal favorite), you can check out my book, "The Case for Pluto."
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Great Photos Great Science what a Privilege to be here Now and see what we are gifted with, For those truly Intersted save the Data about " Spectroanalysis" from telescope data, and the data to come, and then compare, that will assist some to understand the " accuracy of Spectroanalysis in space"
Once RadioAstron's 27 carbon fibre petals open up to form a dish, the telescope will start to collect data, then combine it with observations captured by radio telescopes on Earth. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14200971
.
The DAWN spacecraft is awesome. I've been following it since before it launched. Vesta should be able to tell us a lot. I hope it helps to lend a scientific definition to what constitutes a planet.
POLL: Is Vesta an asteroid, dwarf planet, a planet, or something else?
Vote:
Zadoc
What we need is a Division of what we call a " Planet" the original word meant " nomad"
Having a classification system like Planet E3S1 to mean a Body that Orbits earth like 3 Xs earths mass and a Sun like ours.
I like that idea Eagle, makes sense
To the op, I agree, I love this mission. It should increase our understanding of the solar system, and therefore the universe. Ion-electric propulsion is going to change the way we do things in space, especially once VASIMR is fully developed and incorporated into spacecraft.
For the poll question, I think the current definitions are reasonable, making Vesta an asteroid, and Ceres, Pluto, Eris, etc., all dwarf planets. But the distinctions are ultimately somewhat arbitrary.
Let's hope that NASA can keep doing these exciting space explorations.
Fascinating... When asteroids start to reach this size, apparently they begin to resemble some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and Uranus (Miranda comes to mind - it is about the same size). You can see the gravitational folding and "smooshing" in various lines on the surface. I'm sure Ceres will show many of the same surface traits. Can't wait to find out.
K.K
Yes when gravity has sufficient force to hold materials on the surface, then it becomes a " natural collector" but for use to see the " collection" we have to be ably to land on it well beffore it comes within the effects from the sun.
The Point i made earlier about spectroanalysis is that as NASA has stated time and again it accuracy in Space is less then 5% hardly a number that one can base any reasonable reliance on.
Just keep sticking parts onto it. Lots of material available. Eventually you'll have a nice sized planet.
Jack
It Make a great relay station just put a radio-telescope and Telescope on it with the tech to send the information back to earth, and one would have a magnificent resource.
Why put a telescope on it? It would be easier to point a telescope if it was just out there in space. Put telescopes at Earth's L4 and L5 locations. That would be interesting.
Tony
Have a Look at its Orbit, so a telescope array on it will be same as having a " Traveling circus" ;-) the Telescope will Orbit with Vesta sending back information, think about it, and since this asteroid has been around for a while, then one would assume that a relay station ON it, would be a " Mining lode" for a while as well.
It's still easier to put a relay in solar or planetary orbit than trying to put an array on an asteroid.
Not trying to burst your bubble, it's just easier to orient the telescope, relay or array from an orbital position.
I say if you want to build something on something, build a base on Luna (the moon). Or put a radio telescope on the dark side of the moon. That would sheild it from radio interference from Earth, for hte most part.
Nice photo!!...staying tuned for more!!!
Outpost vesta to get long range sensors?? that would be cool, the united federation of planets needs more long range sensors.
In my area, vesta and neptune are below the moon a full field of view or so, I may have glimpsed neptune last night but I do not have the mag power to see vesta, maybe it's more a matter of skill, If I get the time next week maybe I put a camera on the viewfinder and see if a little dot turns up in the long exposures.....poll? vesta is a spaceship abandoned in this solar system cause it's a bonafide space dump. well, you asked.
So what frequencies do I need to tune the dish to so I can hear these data signals coming in?? is it in the ku band or up into the 50ghz band??
Ray
If you have excess computer power and time get in touch with SETI ;-)
I've always wanted to do this for SETI, or some other noble scientific cause. I have a nice i7 and don't always utilize it. But I don't necessarily want my machine running all the time. Do they typically run around the clock?
Sorry for the off-topic.
cjsks
Go to their site, and read what they have, there are a number of scientific institutions that are looking for use of peoples computer power, and it is a great way to help science.
Hard to imagine that Vesta has been there since a time when the earth was little more than
a magma ball, in the process of differentiating into a crustal surface and forming a moon. Then Vesta
waited as the eons passed and life emerged on earth that eventually gave rise to a curious form of life called humanity. Only to be found and pondered.
waited as the eons passed and life emerged on earth that eventually gave rise to a curious form of life called humanity. Only to be found and pondered.
That reminds me of a couple of Carl Sagan quotes:
"We (humanity) are a way for the cosmos to know itself"
&
"star stuff contemplating the stars" (my favorite)
"In The Beginning" All things have a beginning, so while we can contemplate life in the Universe, we also need to think that the beginning could be US, if we are the " Pod of Terrestrial life" then we have a responsibility, to make sure that life on a " dirt ball" does not end here!!!!
cuckoo..
" One Flew over ------ The Nest"
Is it just me? Why are Dawn's images blurry? I recall even the earliest test images looked soft and I wondered about it then. Now the closeups are looking the same way. Is there something wrong with the camera? They've been calling the camera a "navigational camera." Are there better onboard cameras that haven't been awakened yet?
Maybe Bigfoot and the Lock Ness Monster are from Vesta, and that's why they are always blurry?
"Dawn carries two identical and physically separate cameras for redundancy, each with its own optics, electronics and structure. Each camera is equipped with an f/7.9 refractive optical system with a focal length of 150mm and can use 7 color filters, provided mainly to help study minerals on Vesta's surface. In addition to detecting the visible light humans see, the cameras register near-infrared energy. Each camera includes 8 gigabits of internal data storage." http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/spacecraft/instruments.html
.. err they need to " train the photographer to Focus!!!" ;-)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/pia14315.html Great Photo indeed, any one here know about the difference between a boil crater and an impact crater even taking in consideration the " bounce back"?
http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd189/Eagle_Averro/?action=view¤t=576364main_pia14324-43_946-710FantaleCloseUp.jpg Close up of the Dawn Photos of Vesta this one i named Vesta Fan, why do you think that is appropriate?