The space probe has already collected a wealth of data

Oct 18, 2011 09:46 GMT  ·  By
This image collected by the NASA Dawn spacecraft shows the southern hemisphere of Vesta, the largest asteroid in the solar system
   This image collected by the NASA Dawn spacecraft shows the southern hemisphere of Vesta, the largest asteroid in the solar system

Since July 16, when it entered orbit around the solar system's largest asteroid, the NASA Dawn space probe has been collecting a wealth of data on the space rock. Now, mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, are sharing the findings with their colleagues.

The early science results Dawn collected around Vesta were presented on Monday, October 17, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, which was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Most of the data the JPL team made available concerned the asteroid's southern hemisphere, which is where the NASA spacecraft focused all its efforts. When it first arrived at the space rock, the probe entered a survey orbit thousands of kilometers above the object.

After taking a large number of images depicting Vesta's surface, Dawn moved closer to the surface, on a path that mission controllers refer to as high altitude mapping orbit (HAMO), The spacecraft now flies a mere 420 miles (680 kilometers) above the surface.

Some of the most important findings made thus far include the discovery of the tallest mountain in the solar system, and the realization that the asteroid is much more geologically diverse that anyone estimated. This raises some interesting questions about the early solar system.

In addition to a very large number of weird-looking craters, the NASA spacecraft also determined that Vesta's surface is considerably rougher than that of any other asteroid astronomers analyzed until now.

At the same time, its was also determined that certain portions of Vesta's southern hemisphere are in fact between 1 and 2 billion years younger than the rest of the asteroid. What caused this massive difference is still a mystery to astronomers.

“Scientists do not yet understand how all the features on Vesta's surface formed, but they did announce today, after analysis of northern and southern troughs, that results are consistent with models of fracture formation due to giant impact,” a JPL press release announced yesterday.

“Since July, the Dawn spacecraft has been spiraling closer and closer to Vesta, moving in to get better and better views of the surface. In early August, the spacecraft reached an orbital altitude of 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) and mapped most of the sunlit surface, during survey orbit,” the document adds.

Dawn will remain in orbit around Vesta until July 2012. At that time, it will leave the asteroid, and head for Ceres, the only known dwarf planet in the inner solar system and the Inner Asteroid Belt (IAB).