Asteroid Vesta Photographed By NASA's Orbiting Dawn Craft

*Scroll down for photo.*

(AP/THE HUFFINGTON POST) PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft was captured into orbit around the massive asteroid Vesta after a 1.7 billion-mile journey and is preparing to begin a study of a surface that may date to the earliest era of the solar system, the space agency said Monday.

The entry into orbit occurred while the spacecraft's antenna was pointed away from Earth, so mission controllers had to wait for Dawn to re-establish contact to confirm its success.

The capture was estimated to have occurred at 10 p.m. PDT Friday, when Dawn was 9,900 miles from Vesta and 117 million miles from Earth in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, according to a statement from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"We are beginning the study of arguably the oldest extant primordial surface in the solar system," the mission's principal investigator, Christopher Russell from the University of California, Los Angeles, said in the statement.

NASA said that after the orbital capture, Dawn sent an initial close-up image taken for navigation purposes. Before the Dawn mission, images of Vesta were obtained by ground- and space-based telescopes but did not show much surface detail.

Vesta, 330 miles in diameter, is the second-most massive object in the asteroid belt and is believed to be the source of many meteorites that fall to Earth.

Dawn will continue to approach Vesta over the next three weeks, search for possible moons and make more navigation images. It begins gathering science data in August. Vesta's gravitational pull on Dawn will be measured to more accurately determine the asteroid's mass.

The spacecraft will eventually get as close as 110 miles from the surface.

Dawn was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in 2007 and used an ion propulsion system to reach Vesta. Ion engines provide gentle yet constant acceleration to achieve high speeds.

The spacecraft will study Vesta for a year and then continue on to the most massive object in the main asteroid belt, the "dwarf planet" Ceres. That encounter is scheduled to occur in February 2015.

JPL is managing the $466 million mission for NASA. UCLA is responsible for the mission's science. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute also have roles in the mission.

Check out a photo of the asteroid (below):

LOOK: [via NASA]

Comments

[snackynak]

06:14 AM on 07/31/2011

For more information on the ion propulsion drive(DS 1 spacecraft):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-v-hukKRFQ

And here's a vid on the Magnetoplasma rocket(VASIMR):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9keDlPmFuY

VASIMR test fire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrc-fP_EqF8

[spurn]

01:25 AM on 07/31/2011

Awesome we are but a speck sand against the sea of space and time. I can't believe Obama doesn't have a space shuttle program or replacement. Depend on the Russians for flight into space, say what are you thinking? NASA has been responsible for so many modern conveniences and inventions have we lost our vision? Write your congressman and senators. Where did computer science originate? Space the final frontier! Oh yeah let's go!

[Gronkie]

08:57 AM on 07/31/2011

The program was killed by the Bush administration, along with any semblance of an economy to get it restarted. Even if Obama made a pledge to restart it, where would the money come from, with 2.5 wars going on? Face it, the government is not willing to spend money on any kind of technology that doesn't have the goal of killing people in great numbers.

[Progress2342]

04:23 PM on 07/20/2011

See how amazing and beautiful science is? It's a lot more interesting than most people think. Unfortunately, these breathtaking images and cutting edge pursuits of knowledge are being threatened by anti-science politicians in DC, where the House has proposed cutting funding for NASA astrophysics research, robotic probes like this who explore the solar system, and, worst of all, cancelling the James Webb Space Telescope, planned to be the successor to the Hubble. We are in tough times, but we shouldn't hurt the next generation by destroying science. Write to congress and ask them to keep science funding, and focus on eliminating waste and ending tax breaks for billionaires instead.

Sign the petition to save the Webb Space Telescope, the site is safe:
http://planetary.org/special/action
And another, if you REALLY want to be heard:
http://www.change.org/petitions/do-not-cancel-funding-for-the-james-webb-space-telescope

[Ana Mancini]

02:41 PM on 07/20/2011

That is just soooo amazing. I would love to travel to space some day.

:)

Ana Mancini

[Gronkie]

08:58 AM on 07/31/2011

Wanna join the 100 mile high club together?

Just puttin' it out there...

[SiriusMrE]

12:54 PM on 07/20/2011

All hail the superlative engineering responsible for getting this probe into position! Beautiful images! Sadly, the interpretive sciences are left wanting. The article suggests that one could argue whether we are seeing "the oldest extant primordial surface in the solar system;" so, I will argue that we are probably not. What we are looking at is probably not all that old--astronomically speaking; therefore, it is probably not primordial. In fact, the event that produced it may have happened within the race memory of Mankind, thus the great myth-making that began (cross-culturally) approximately 6,00 years ago.

Look at that thing. Does that look like something that just haphazardly lumped itself together under the vanishingly small force of gravity? (Remember that you can defy the gravity of the entire planet by simply lifting your arm.) Look at all of the geological morphology. All of that supposedly happened through gravitational aggregation and meteor strikes? That truly stretches credulity. No, those surfaces bear the tell-tale signs of electrical scarring. I realize that it is difficult for some to wrap their heads around the idea of electrical power on that scale, but I would draw your attention to the recent article about the discovery of the largest electric current ever seen in space. (While that story still relies on the fictional black hole as the causative agent, it is a sign at least that astronomers are beginning to see the currents. They just have to get the cause straight.)

[palindrom]

12:12 AM on 07/21/2011

Hello Sirius!

For the benefit of other readers, I'd like to point out that the Electric Universe/thunderbolts ideas that Sirius alludes to are considered to be ridiculous by all competent professional astronomers and physicists. But this doesn't dampen the enthusiasm of proponents!

[SiriusMrE]

11:26 AM on 07/25/2011

Geocentrism.
Epicycles.
Phlogiston.
Black holes.
Dark energy/matter.

[NitramNos]

10:42 AM on 07/20/2011

It's amazing to me that they can place a spacecraft in orbit around a body so far away, so small and with so little gravitational force.

[palindrom]

12:14 AM on 07/21/2011

Interplanetary navigation is simply amazing -- the precision with which they can nudge spacecraft into position is mind-boggling.

[HawaiiSteve]

05:03 AM on 07/20/2011

Way Cool! Much better than wasting money on wars!

[Flying Dutchman]

05:50 AM on 07/20/2011

I totally agree!

[Gronkie]

09:00 AM on 07/31/2011

I'm with you.

[mamacat]

04:52 AM on 07/20/2011

Awesome!

[Keefe Lehman]

11:52 PM on 07/19/2011

I'm more anticipating Dawns second mission when it moves on-to the dwarf planet Ceres after Vesta. From the fuzzy Hubble pictures it looks like it has some white ice patches and a slight atmosphere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_%28dwarf_planet%29

[mamacat]

04:53 AM on 07/20/2011

From my point of view, I would have like it if it had gone to Ceres first. Seems like a more interesting place to visit.

[Keefe Lehman]

06:52 PM on 07/21/2011

Agreed,

I'm guessing Vista is closer or they are planing on hitching a ride until the two of them are closer together.

[anchises868]

10:06 PM on 07/19/2011

Mine?

[STfanboy]

01:13 PM on 07/19/2011

This sort of story gives me goosebumps because of what we can do as a nation and as a species. Keep it up NASA.

[edg1]

02:33 PM on 07/19/2011

Your goosebumps will be disappearing as the deficit-cutters gut the NASA budget. But then again, China seems to be willing to fill the gap. It wouldn't surprise me if China were the first nation to mine asteroids, thus capturing fabulous mineral and financial wealth while has-been nations like the United States sit idly by.

[CarlIII]

12:30 AM on 07/20/2011

I've been following NASA since I was a boy. And I can tell you that it is all political. We went to the moon to show up the Russians. But we lost the Space program when Challenger blew up. We continued on with the building of the space station. But we never did another "Teacher in Space". All that died. Then Columbia disintegrated and manned space flight in the USA was doomed. Once the Chinese land on the moon, we will rise up and spend the bucks needed for Mars.

[Mike Dennison]

01:12 PM on 07/19/2011

I find it utterly amazing to see another world in our solar system that up until now had just been a dot in our telescopes. I'm also impressed by the ion drive on the probe.

[2crudedudes]

12:46 PM on 07/19/2011

still no science tab

[SolarArray]

01:48 PM on 07/19/2011

Yes, having a science tab would be small way to promote science, which is always a good thing.

[palindrom]

08:11 AM on 07/20/2011

If HP creates a science tab, it would be good if they also hired a couple of real science reporters. Some health and living stories have earned HP the derision of others on science-based blogs -- e.g. promoting homeopathy ("The One Woo to Rule them All", in Orac's words).

[666dorado]

12:16 PM on 07/19/2011

looks like an oatmeal raisin cookie.

[surlyguvna]

12:03 PM on 07/19/2011

There are a lot of Chris Christie haters on this thread...must be this asteroid's gross and obvious resemblance to Christie.