What is vesta

The combined scar created by these two impacts was apparent even in Hubble Space Telescope images, which also discerned a peak in the center. Its central peak rises miles and is more than miles wide, making it compete with Mars' Olympus Mons as the largest mountain the in solar system. What happened to the one percent of Vesta that was propelled from its home during those impacts?

The debris, ranging in size from sand and gravel to boulder and smaller asteroids known as Vestoids , was ejected into space where it began its own journey through the solar system. Scientist believe that about 6 percent of all meteorites we find on Earth are a result of this ancient impact in deep space. Dawn mapped Vesta's geology, composition, cratering record and more.

It determined Vesta's interior structure by measuring its gravity field. Together, this data has elucidated the formation and evolution of this small rocky world in the main asteroid belt. Dawn found a heavily cratered surface on Vesta, with a rough topography that is transitional between planets and asteroids. Dawn also found that Vesta's gravity field is consistent with the presence of an iron core around miles in diameter, in agreement with the size predicted by HED-based differentiation models.

Liquid water once flowed across the asteroid. Images captured by the Dawn spacecraft revealed curved gullies and fan-shaped deposits within eight different Vesta impact craters. All eight of the craters are thought to have formed within the last few hundred million years, fairly recent in the lifetime of the 4.

The surface is very cold and there is no atmosphere, so any water on the surface evaporates," study lead author Jennifer Scully, a postgraduate researcher at UCLA, said in a NASA statement.

Scully and her team thought the features were created by debris flows, as opposed to pure-water rivers or streams, sculpted the Vesta gullies. They proposed that meteorites bombarding the asteroid melted ice deposits beneath the surface, sending liquid water and small rocky particles flowing down the crater walls. Such activity suggests the presence of ice buried beneath the surface. Ice could have been responsible for modifying Vesta's surface. In , a study suggested that smooth patches of terrain on the asteroid frequently possessed high concentrations of hydrogen, which is often seen when solar radiation breaks down water molecules.

Dawn also observed signs of hydrated minerals minerals containing water molecules on Vesta's surface, which could also hint at the presence of buried ice. The hydrated materials were associated with older terrains, and could have been delivered by impacts of material from farther out in the solar system.

A low-altitude map of Vesta revealed a rich geology. The steep slopes found on the asteroid, combined with its high gravity, paves the way for rocks to roll downward, exposing other material. Dawn revealed a variety of mineral, including some bright and dark materials that could relate to potential buried ice. In fact, Vesta's unique composition means that it is responsible for an entire group of meteorites.

The HED meteorites — made up of howardites, eucrites and diogenites — tell the story of Vesta's early life. Eucrites form from hardened lava, while diogenites come from beneath the surface.

Howardites are a combination of the two, formed when a large impact mixed the two sections together. Vesta has been suspected as being the source of the HED meteorites since Dawn's mapping spectrometer verified that proposition.

The Dawn team thinks the HEDs came from an impact basin named Rheasilvia, after an ancient Roman vestal virgin priestess. At miles kilometers in diameter, Rheasilvia is nearly as large as Vesta itself. It most likely formed from a collision that stripped away most of the southern hemisphere's crust, revealing the asteroid's interior. Parallel troughs may be another sign of the enormous impact. Raymond told the Planetary Society that the presence of those troughs suggests serious damage to the asteroid's interior.

If the orbit of Vesta lies beyond Mars, how did pieces of it manage to arrive on Earth? The fragments of Vesta pass Jupiter once every three orbits around the sun, allowing the gravity of the largest planet to affect them. Such tugging could have shifted the fragments enough to cause their eventual impact with Earth.

As a result, Vesta is one of three bodies from which scientists have samples. The other two are the moon and Mars. This page showcases our resources for those interested in learning more about the Lucy Mission.

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