Video of Dawn spacecraft fly around giant Asteroid Vesta. Dawn is designed to orbit the protoplanet Vesta with a mean diameter of 525 km and the dwarf planet Ceres with a mean diameter 950 km -- the two most massive bodies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The mission, launched in 2007, will provide scientists with new knowledge of how the solar system formed and evolved. Dawn arrived at Vesta on July 15, 2011. Dawn revealed that Vesta resembles a small planet more than it does an typical asteroid indicating that it is a surviving baby planet from the beginnings of the solar system. Shaped like a somewhat flattened basketball, Vesta data shows it had completely melted in the past and had layers around an iron core. Dawn discovered that the southern hemisphere endured two colossal impacts in the distant past, 1 billion and 2 billion years ago. The two monster impacts created ripples that can be seen as channels along the surface. Having left Vesta, the next stop is Ceres in early 2015 where water vapor and geysers have been detected.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 22:28:30 +0000
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