Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/M PS/DLR/IDA
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has been in orbit around asteroid Vesta since July 16th – relaying back to Earth intriguing imagery of the giant space rock.
A German camera system on board is being used to acquire images of the asteroid’s surface. These images show craters, hills and even shapes that remind the researchers of snowmen, according to a press statement from the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
The data is being processed by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) to create maps and elevation models of Vesta.
The irregularly shaped Vesta is of particular interest to scientists because it has changed very little since it was formed about 4.5 billion years ago.
The images produced at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research provide researchers with a snapshot of the birth of the Solar System.
Bright and dark material can be seen on Vesta’s rugged and mountainous surface.
The ongoing Dawn mission to Vesta and later, asteroid Ceres, is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.
Dawn is a project of the Discovery Program managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science.
Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.
By Leonard David