Vesta

Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Physical / Universe / Solar System / Asteroid Belt / Vesta
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Vesta, minor-planet designation 4 Vesta, is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of 525 kilometres (326 mi). Vesta is the second-most-massive and second-largest body in the asteroid belt after the dwarf planet Ceres, and it contributes an estimated 9% of the mass of the asteroid belt. Vesta is the only known remaining rocky protoplanet (with a differentiated interior) of the kind that formed the terrestrial planets. Numerous fragments of Vesta were ejected by collisions one and two billion years ago that left two enormous craters occupying much of Vesta’s southern hemisphere. Debris from these events has fallen to Earth as howardite–eucrite–diogenite (HED) meteorites, which have been a rich source of information about Vesta. — Wikipedia

Vesta (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Vesta (Wolfram Alpha)
Minor Planets (Wolfram Alpha)

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Inspiration

Cracking a Mystery about Vesta, Our Solar System’s Second Largest Asteroid (Robby Berman, Big Think)

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Innovation

Science

Dawn was a space probe that was launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 16, 2011, and completed a 14-month survey mission before leaving for Ceres in late 2012. — Wikipedia

Dawn (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, YouTube Playlist)

Dawn Mission: Vesta (JPL, NASA)
Dawn at Vesta (Paul Schenk, Lunar & Planetary Institute)

Legacy of NASA’s Dawn, Near the End of its Mission (NASA/JPL)
Dawn (JPL, NASA)
Dawn Mission (NASA)

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