Dawn at Vesta

[NEOWatcher]

Just the "side" that happened to be in shadow. A bit sloppy, there.

And the picture shows half of it in the light. So, it's not even the whole "side".

[ToSeek]

Photos, etc., released today:

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Begins Science Orbits of Vesta

Frosty the Snowman lives on Vesta:

[kamaz]

Right click, show image. It is much bigger than shown here.

[dtilque]

There's a video of a full rotation of Vesta here:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1009

Starting about a third of the way through there's some linear features that go at least a third of the way around the planet. Anyone have any speculation about what those are?

[CJSF]

There is some decent speculation that they are related to the large impact "basin" that makes up the south polar region. Perhaps compression and extension features from the shockwave that resulted from it.

CJSF

[PeteB]

NEOWatcher write
"Dark side?
It's a rotating body, how can it have a dark side? "


Actually there is a dark side to Vesta - the albedo is noticeably different between hemispheres. I think that it is more or less orthogonal to the N-S topographic difference. You can see the albedo variation in the rotation movie. Not all of the difference in that movie is due to lighting.

[CJSF]

Emily at the Planetary Society Blog: What I see in the first high-res Dawn images of Vesta

...my speculative explanations for what I'm seeing are, of course, much more likely to be wrong than the ideas that the science team was tossing around at yesterday's press briefing. But asking questions like these, and chasing down the clues we need to answer them, is the whole reason Dawn is at Vesta. What a great mission this is going to be!

Woohoo!

CJSF

[Rhaedas]

Something that I just noticed that's sort of a "duh", but...

Looking at the larger impact craters, I noticed that they were missing the common rays that the Moon has on its craters, and then suddenly I realized, of course they wouldn't, the gravity is so much less, so material doesn't fall back down from a blast.

[ToSeek]

Something that I just noticed that's sort of a "duh", but...

Looking at the larger impact craters, I noticed that they were missing the common rays that the Moon has on its craters, and then suddenly I realized, of course they wouldn't, the gravity is so much less, so material doesn't fall back down from a blast.

And some of the bits ended up on Earth.

[Lord Jubjub]

The mission status page at JPL has announced that Dawn will enter her survey orbit on the 11th.

As an edit, let me speculate that the channels look a bit like crumple zones for a glancing impact on the south pole.

[CJSF]

I think they look like "frozen" shockwaves from a direct impact.

CJSF

[Romanus]

Those are absolutely amazing images, and well worth the wait.

I can only echo the speculation that those grooves are related to stresses from the enormous south polar impact. Perhaps some day in the far future we'll send down some seismometers with a Deep Impact-style impactor and figure out just what kind of damage that thing did to Vesta's interior, if any.

[KaiYeves]

Love the new images.

[CJSF]

Have a Vesta Fiesta!

Yes! Vesta Fiestas will rock the nation – one may be yours! Consider this your official invitation to join the celebration by hosting an event with your club, society, school group, or museum. Stay tuned for on-going cool connections with Dawn mission scientists, opportunities for networking with a local observatory, materials for recruiting fiesta-goers, and great activities for the party itself.

I won't be able to make any larger events, but maybe the wife and I will have some tacos and decorate the house a bit. The cats would love that, anyways.

CJSF

[KaiYeves]

It sounds like a lot of fun, I just wish they'd announced it earlier so we'd have time to prepare.

[bunker9603]

New Image Posted on August 4, 2011:

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 31, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) away from the giant asteroid Vesta.

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/...age_073111.asp

[Garrison]

New Image Posted on August 4, 2011:



http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/...age_073111.asp

Is that four rayed craters in a square arrangement at the bottom of the image? If so that must have been low energy impacts so the ejecta didn't escape, or is it something else altogether?

[Squink]

Is that four rayed craters in a square arrangement at the bottom of the image?

Defunct, four membered Klemperer rosette.

[Lord Jubjub]

Dawn has achieved survey orbit (circular and polar orbit of 2700 kilometers (1700 miles)) around Vesta. In a couple of days, the science of the survey orbit will begin.

[KaiYeves]

:-)

[Spacemad]

Dawn has achieved survey orbit (circular and polar orbit of 2700 kilometers (1700 miles)) around Vesta. In a couple of days, the science of the survey orbit will begin.

This is great news! Soon Dawn will be able to do the science it has been sent there to do! looking forward to hearing more about this giant asteroid.

[CJSF]

Image of the day of "heavily cratered terrain."

CJSF

[bunker9603]

Image Release for September 8, 2011:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/...?date=20110908

When you open the "Full Size Image" it shows a different shot of Vesta:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/...1_031_full.jpg

ETA: They have fixed the image to show the proper shot now.

[parallaxicality]

er, why is it unusual?

[bunker9603]

er, why is it unusual?

I wish they would say, I dont see anything unusal about it.

[ToSeek]

I wish they would say, I dont see anything unusal about it.

When the brilliant Emily Lakdawalla has the same complaint, you know you're onto something.

[ToSeek]

Cool photos and video:

NASA's Dawn Collects a Bounty of Beauty from Vesta

[antoniseb]

er, why is it unusual?

Do you mean Vesta? It is unusual and interesting because it is a large asteroid on the size-boundary of making itself round through self gravitation. This includes being unusual because it is large. There are very few free-orbiting bodies larger than this in the inner solar system.

The mission is interesting because it may provide us with information about where future landers may want to investigate.

Aside from that, it is easy to look at it and say it is "just an asteroid".

[cjameshuff]

Do you mean Vesta? It is unusual and interesting because it is a large asteroid on the size-boundary of making itself round through self gravitation. This includes being unusual because it is large. There are very few free-orbiting bodies larger than this in the inner solar system.

Not the asteroid, the "unusual hill" in the picture. Presumably it's unusual for some reason other than being on Vesta.

[Garrison]

Not the asteroid, the "unusual hill" in the picture. Presumably it's unusual for some reason other than being on Vesta.

Unless it's supposed to be on Ceres...