VESTA

• 4 Vesta


• Discovered in 1807 by H. Olbers
• Photgraphed by the Hubble Space Telescope between Nov. 28 and Dec. 1, 1994 at a distance of about 156 million miles
• Diameter of 326 miles
• Rotational period of ~5.34 hours
• Vesta surface


• [Top] Surface Brightness Map of Vesta - This map shows that, unlike most asteroids, Vesta's surface is significantly varied with a dark hemisphere and a light hemisphere. The surface markings may represent ancient igneous activity such as lava flows and, in addition, regions where major impacts have stripped away the crust revealing mantle material below the crust.
• [Bottom] Surface Composition Map of Vesta - This false-color composite map of Vesta results show that all of Vesta's surface is igneous, indicating that either the entire surface was once melted, or lava flowing from its interior once completely covered its surface. The map shows that Vesta has two distinct hemispheres containing two different types of solidified lava called basalts.
• Vesta Meteorite


• Meteorite has same specteral characteristics as Vesta's surface
• Recovered in Western Australia where it is beleived to have landed in 1960
• After comparison with Hubble pictures some dubbed Vesta as the 'sixth' terrestrial planet.
• It is believed that many of the meteorites recovered on Earth are actually chunks of Vesta that have been broken off

Asteroids Home Page