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Asteroid Vesta Has Unique ‘Space Weathering’

By Guest PostNovember 1, 2012Scienceairless bodies, analysis, asteroid belt, brown university, carle pieters, dawn spacecraft, energetic particle, geologist, giant asteroid, gravitational characteristics, lunar surface, metal nanoparticle, mineral composition, moon, nanophase coatings, nanophase weathering, NASA, phenomenon, solar system, solar wind, space weathering, vaporized meteorite, vesta

Space weathering — a darkening of lunar surfaces by solar wind and metal nanoparticles from vaporized meteorites — appears to happen differently on Vesta, the largest body in the asteroid belt. The discovery, from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, has planetary geologists returning to their lunar data for another look and further analysis.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The surface of the giant asteroid Vesta is weathering in a way that appears to be completely different from any other asteroid yet visited, according to new data recorded by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. This new type of space weathering suggests that there’s something about Vesta — perhaps its mineral composition or its position in the solar system — that makes its surface environment fundamentally different from other asteroids studied thus far.

The new data are presented in a paper published Nov. 1, 2012, in the journal Nature. (more…)

You’re Beautiful, Vesta

By Guest PostMay 11, 2012Scienceancient roman goddess, beauty, berlin, building blocks, ceres, christopher t russell, crater on vesta, dawn mission, dlr institute, dwarf planet, earth, freie universitaet, gamma ray, Germany, gravitational field, gravity, hearth, ion propulsion, iron, iron core, jet propulsion laboratory, jpl, jupiter, katlenburg, los angeles, mars, max planck institute, monterey, moon, mount everest, NASA, neutron spectrometer, orbit, planetary, protoplanet vesta, radiation, regolith, san francisco, Science, solar nebula, solar system, solar system models, solar system research, south polar region, ucla, vesta, vestoids, wavelengths

NASA’s UCLA-led Dawn mission shows protoplanet’s surprising surface

When UCLA’s Christopher T. Russell looks at the images of the protoplanet Vesta produced by NASA’s Dawn mission, he talks about beauty as much as he talks about science.

“Vesta looks like a little planet. It has a beautiful surface, much more varied and diverse than we expected,” said Russell, a professor in UCLA’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences and the Dawn mission’s principal investigator. “We knew Vesta’s surface had some variation in color, but we did not expect the diversity that we see or the clarity of the colors and textures, or their distinct boundaries. We didn’t find gold on Vesta, but it is still a gold mine.”

Dawn has been orbiting Vesta and collecting data on the protoplanet’s surface since July 2011. Vesta, which is in the doughnut-shaped asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is currently some 321 million miles from Earth. (more…)

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around Asteroid Vesta

By Guest PostJuly 17, 2011Scienceasteroid, asteroid vesta, ceres, charles bolden, dawn, dawn spacecraft, dwarf planet, german aerospace center, gravitational pull, gravity, italian space agency, jet propulsion laboratory, los angeles, main asteroid belt between mars and jupiter, marshall space flight center in huntsville, max planck institute for solar system research, NASA, President Obama, spacecraft, university of california, vesta

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on Saturday became the first probe ever to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Dawn will study the asteroid, named Vesta, for a year before departing for a second destination, a dwarf planet named Ceres, in July 2012. Observations will provide unprecedented data to help scientists understand the earliest chapter of our solar system. The data also will help pave the way for future human space missions. (more…)

Dawn Reaches Milestone Approaching Asteroid Vesta

By Guest PostMay 5, 2011Scienceasteroid, asteroid belt, asteroid vesta, cape canaveral air force station, celestial body, christopher russell, cosmic rays, dawn spacecraft, earth, earth orbiting telescopes, florida, gamma ray, interplanetary travel, marc rayman, NASA, neutron detector, orbit, planet, protoplanet, radio signal, spacecraft, terra incognita, vesta

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has reached its official approach phase to the asteroid Vesta and will begin using cameras for the first time to aid navigation for an expected July 16 orbital encounter. The large asteroid is known as a protoplanet — a celestial body that almost formed into a planet.

At the start of this three-month final approach to this massive body in the asteroid belt, Dawn is 1.21 million kilometers (752,000 miles) from Vesta, or about three times the distance between Earth and the moon. During the approach phase, the spacecraft’s main activity will be thrusting with a special, hyper-efficient ion engine that uses electricity to ionize and accelerate xenon. The 12-inch-wide ion thrusters provide less thrust than conventional engines, but will provide propulsion for years during the mission and provide far greater capability to change velocity. (more…)

When is an Asteroid Not an Asteroid?

By Guest PostMarch 31, 2011Scienceasteroid, christopher russell, earlier era, german astronomer, gravitational, heinrich wilhelm olbers, minor planet, orbiting rubble patch, pinprick of light, presence of Jupiter, superpower, tom mccord, vesta

On March 29, 1807, German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers spotted Vesta as a pinprick of light in the sky. Two hundred and four years later, as NASA’s Dawn spacecraft prepares to begin orbiting this intriguing world, scientists now know how special this world is, even if there has been some debate on how to classify it.

Vesta is most commonly called an asteroid because it lies in the orbiting rubble patch known as the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But the vast majority of objects in the main belt are lightweights, 100-kilometers-wide (about 60-miles wide) or smaller, compared with Vesta, which is about 530 kilometers (330 miles) across on average. In fact, numerous bits of Vesta ejected by collisions with other objects have been identified in the main belt. (more…)

Tag Archives: vesta

Asteroid Vesta Has Unique ‘Space Weathering’

You’re Beautiful, Vesta

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around Asteroid Vesta

Dawn Reaches Milestone Approaching Asteroid Vesta

When is an Asteroid Not an Asteroid?