Astronomy Picture of the Week – Vesta from Orbit by Dawn Spacecraft
This photo of Vesta was taken by the Dawn spacecraft from the asteroid’s orbit on July 17. Vesta is a large asteroid with a mean diameter of about 530 kilometers. It is the second most massive object in the asteroid belt after Ceres and consists of about 9% of all the belt’s mass. It is also the brightest asteroid because it orbits much closer to the Sun than Ceres. Its average distance from the sun is 2.361 AU. Dawn will study the asteroid for the next year and we hope for lots of interesting discoveries.
Image credit: Dawn spacecraft (NASA/JPL)
Paul Tomaszewski
Paul Tomaszewski is the founder of CosmoBC. He enjoys programming and writing on topics such as technology, business, astronomy, and many more. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
5 Comments
jom
I’ve always been interested on how the universe actually works.. and this photo is absolutely amazing! thanks so much for sharing it
Lodeven
Wonderful post, i feel so good that i found this article, honestly it is the first time i heard about NASA, thank you for sharing with us….
Paul Tomaszewski
Really? Never heard of NASA before? Where did you live???
Annabell Megan
i am so glad that i found this article i can and i love to go back have updates about NASA.thanks for sharing
Olivia
I love to read this article i learn something new about NASA now i have idea that i can share to my little daughter.enjoy reading…