• arclein
The asteroid looks like a punctured football, the result of a colossal collision sometime in its past that knocked off its south polar region.
Vesta was discovered in 1807, the fourth asteroid to be identified in the great belt of rocky debris orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.
It did successfully achieve orbit around its targeted asteroid--which like a much more ambitious predecessor Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft--is no small achievement.
1 Comments in Response to Orbiting Vesta Now and Next Year to Ceres
It did successfully achieve orbit around its targeted asteroid--which like a much more ambitious predecessor Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft--is no small achievement.
US spacecraft enters giant asteroid's orbithttp://www.spacedaily.com/reports/US_spacecraft_enters_giant_asteroids_orbit_999.html