* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Dawn spacecraft

Blobrana · L

Dawn has completed another wonderfully successful phase of its exploration of Vesta, studying it in unprecedented detail during the past month. From the time of its discovery more than two centuries ago until just a few months ago, this protoplanet appeared as hardly more than a fuzzy blob, an indistinct fleck in the sky. Now Dawn has mapped it with exquisite clarity, revealing a fascinatingly complex alien world.
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Blobrana · L

NASA's Dawn Science Team Presents Early Science Results

Scientists with NASA's Dawn mission are sharing with other scientists and the public their early information about the southern hemisphere of the giant asteroid Vesta. The findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Minneapolis, Minn.
Dawn, which has been orbiting Vesta since mid-July, has found that the asteroid's southern hemisphere boasts one of the largest mountains in the solar system. Other findings show that Vesta's surface, viewed by Dawn at different wavelengths, has striking diversity in its composition, particularly around craters. Science findings also include an in-depth analysis of a set of equatorial troughs on Vesta and a closer look at the object's intriguing craters. The surface appears to be much rougher than most asteroids in the main asteroid belt. In addition, preliminary dates from a method that uses the number of craters indicate that areas in the southern hemisphere are as young as 1 billion to 2 billion years old, much younger than areas in the north.
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Blobrana · L

Press Briefing Webcast: NASA's Dawn Mission at Vesta

Scientists from NASA's Dawn Mission will present latest findings from their exploration of the solar system's second most massive object in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, the asteroid Vesta, at a press briefing to be held from noon to 1:00 p.m. (CDT) on Wednesday, 12 October 2011. The team is presenting their work at the 2011 Annual Meeting and Exhibition of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in Minneapolis, MN, 9-12 October 2011.
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Blobrana · L

Dawn at Vesta: Massive mountains, rough surface, and old-young dichotomy in hemispheres

NASA's Dawn mission, which has been orbiting Vesta since mid-July, has revealed that the asteroid's southern hemisphere boasts one of the largest mountains in the Solar System. Other results show that Vesta's surface, viewed at different wavelengths, has striking diversity in its composition particularly around craters. The surface appears to be much rougher than most asteroids in the main asteroid belt. Preliminary results from crater age dates indicate that areas in the southern hemisphere are as young as 1-2 billion years old, much younger than areas in the north. The findings are being presented today at the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011 in Nantes, France.
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Blobrana · L

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Begins New Vesta Mapping Orbit

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has completed a gentle spiral into its new science orbit for an even closer view of the giant asteroid Vesta. Dawn began sending science data on Sept. 29 from this new orbit, known as the high altitude mapping orbit (HAMO).
In this orbit, the average distance from the spacecraft to the Vesta surface is 680 kilometres, which is four times closer than the previous survey orbit. The spacecraft will operate in the same basic manner as it did in the survey orbit. When Dawn is over Vesta's dayside, it will point its science instruments to the giant asteroid and acquire data, and when the spacecraft flies over the nightside, it will beam that data back to Earth.
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Blobrana · L

Dawn's fourth anniversary of being in space is very different from its previous ones. Indeed, those days all were devoted to reaching the distant destination the ship is now exploring. Celebrating its anniversary of leaving Earth, Dawn is in orbit around a kindred terrestrial-type world, the ancient protoplanet Vesta.
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Blobrana · L

Dawn has completed the first phase of its exploration of Vesta with tremendous success, and the peripatetic adventurer is now in powered flight again, on its way to a new location from which to scrutinize its subject. Meanwhile, scientists are deeply engaged in analysing the magnificent views the stalwart surveyor has transmitted to Earth.
Most of August was devoted to survey orbit. At an altitude of about 2,700 kilometres, the ship sailed slowly around the world beneath it, completing a loop every 69 hours. Vesta rotates faster, turning once on its axis each 5 hours, 20 minutes. As we saw in the previous log, the survey orbit phase of the mission consisted of seven revolutions around Vesta, providing ample opportunities to acquire the rich bounty of data that scientists yearned for.
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Blobrana · L

NASA's Asteroid Photographer Beams Back Science Data

The Dawn spacecraft has completed a graceful spiral into the first of four planned science orbits during the spacecraft's yearlong visit to Vesta. The spacecraft started taking detailed observations on Aug. 11 at 9:13 a.m. PDT (12:13 a.m. EDT), which marks the official start of the first science-collecting orbit phase at Vesta, also known as the survey orbit.
Survey orbit is the initial and highest orbit, at roughly 2700 kilometres above the surface, which will provide an overview or "big picture" perspective of the giant asteroid.
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Blobrana · L

NASA craft sends images of giant asteroid

The US space agency NASA has revealed the first images of Asteroid Vesta.
A feature, nicknamed "Snowman", was captured by NASA's Dawn Spacecraft framing camera from a distance of 3,200 miles.
The astral body is believed to date back to the first five million years of the solar system.
Now scientists are trying to uncover what caused the dark grooves on the asteroid's surface.