
Asteroid Vesta
On the left is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Vesta, taken in May 1996 when the asteroid was 110 million miles from Earth. The asymmetry of the asteroid and the "nub" at the south pole is suggestive that it suffered a large impact event. The giant crater is 285 miles across, which is nearly equal to Vesta's 330-mile (526-km) diameter. Astronomers had predicted the existence of one or more large craters, reasoning that if Vesta is the true "parent body" of some smaller asteroids then it should have the wound of a major impact that was catastrophic enough to knock off big chunks. The "nub" at the bottom of the asteroid is consistent with a catastrophic impact.
On the right is an image of Vesta obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft with its framing camera on July 9, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 26,000 miles. The "nub" is visible just to the lower left of the center of the image.
Vesta is the third-largest asteroid after Ceres and Pallas. Here is a list of the largest asteroids with their widths:
|
975
x 909 km |
|
|
Pallas |
582
x 500 |
|
Vesta |
578
x 458 |
|
Hygiea |
530
x 370 |
|
357
x 231 |
|
|
Interamnia |
350
x 303 |
|
Sylvia |
384
x 232 |
|
Europa |
360
x 240 |
|
Eunomia |
357
x 212 |
| Juno |
320 x 200 |
|
Psyche |
240
x 145 |
|
116
x 46 |
|
|
57
x 50 |
|
|
34
x 20 |
|
|
35
x 13 |
|
|
Geographos |
5.1
x 1.8 |
|
4
x 2.5 |
|
|
Castalia |
1.8
x 0.75 |
| Itokawa |
0.54 x 0.27 |
Source: Wikipedia