A New Look at Vesta
4Vesta is the brightest asteroid and the second largest after Ceres. It was discovered on March 29, 1807 and classified as a planet along with
Ceres(which was discovered in 1801). Vesta measures some 329 miles or 529 kilometres in diameter and is almost round in shape with a huge crater or depression
on its south side. It's tilted at a 4° angle and rotates once every 5.34 hours. Vesta qualifies as a dwarf planet and we'll get a really good look at it between
July 2011 and May 2012 when the spacecraft Dawn will take up a polar orbit around it before going on to Ceres in 2015.
A recent Hubble image of Vesta
Other Hubble images of Vesta
For an ephemeris of Vesta and more statistics click here
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