Secrets of Large Asteroid Revealed

[Waspie_Dwarf]

NASA Dawn Mission Reveals Secrets of Large Asteroid

PASADENA, Calif. – 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."

Scientists now see Vesta as a layered, planetary building block with an iron core – the only one known to survive the earliest days of the solar system. The asteroid's geologic complexity can be attributed to a process that separated the asteroid into a crust, mantle and iron core with a radius of approximately 68 miles (110 kilometers) about 4.56 billion years ago. The terrestrial planets and Earth's moon formed in a similar way.

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Edited June 11, 2012 by Waspie_Dwarf
corrected typo in tags

[Xanthurion2]

cool

[Paracelse]

When do we start mining operations and who will get to do it?

[95-Nasty]

Cant view the full artical.

What will it cost the Tax payer? I heard the government tried this before and it cost too much to see it through! Aslo herd A private company/ firm (billionaires) are trying this! What ever happens (fail or succeed) how much will it cost me and you? I know and understand we have to get our resorces from some where else!

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Cant view the full artical.

What will it cost the Tax payer? I heard the government tried this before and it cost too much to see it through!

I assume you mean asteroid mining. The article has nothing at all to do with mining asteroids, it's about the discoveries made about this particular asteroid, Vesta.

By "the government" and "the tax payer" I assume you mean those of the USA (this is an international site, I, for example, am a UK payer so it won't cost me a penny).

Asteroid mining has never been attempted by anyone yet, so no one has "not seen it through" because of cost.

The US government has no published plans to go asteroid mining so, for the foreseeable future this will cost the tax payer nothing.

Aslo herd A private company/ firm (billionaires) are trying this! What ever happens (fail or succeed) how much will it cost me and you?

This part is true.

As I've already pointed out, it won't cost me anything. As for you, well the clue is in it being a PRIVATE company and, therefore by definition, not a government funded one.

I know and understand we have to get our resorces from some where else!

There is a recent topic on asteroid mining here: Plans for asteroid mining emerge. That might be a better place to discuss the issue of asteroid mining so that this topic can remain about the discoveries at Vesta.

[Kludge808]

It will be interesting to see what Dawn's visit to Ceres will bring and how it compares to what we're learning now.

Things like this make me glad I'm old enough (nudging 67) to see so much go from science fiction to science fact, especially in space exploration.