This brief note from NASA. Scientists with the Dawn Mission to Vesta presented findings yesterday May 10 about the studies of the asteroid. Dawn will depart Vesta August 26, 2012 with a Ceres arrival February 2015. The end of the primary mission is scheduled for July 2015.
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has provided researchers with the first orbital analysis of the giant asteroid Vesta, yielding new insights into its creation and kinship with terrestrial planets and Earth's moon.
Vesta now has been revealed as a special fossil of the early solar system with a more varied, diverse surface than originally thought. Scientists have confirmed a variety of ways in which Vesta more closely resembles a small planet or Earth's moon than another asteroid. Results appear in today's edition of the journal Science.
"Dawn's visit to Vesta has confirmed our broad theories of this giant asteroid's history, while helping to fill in details it would have been impossible to know from afar," said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Dawn's residence at Vesta of nearly a year has made the asteroid's planet-like qualities obvious and shown us our connection to that bright orb in our night sky."
This virtual flyover video gives a unique and striking perspective on one of the solar system's two largest asteroids.