The Many Faces of Vesta
To prepare for the Dawn spacecraft's visit to Vesta, astronomers used Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 to snap new images of the asteroid. These images were taken on May 14 and 16, 2007. Each frame shows time in hours and minutes based on Vesta's 5.34-hour rotation period. Using Hubble, astronomers mapped Vesta's southern hemisphere, a region dominated by a giant impact crater formed by a collision billions of years ago. The crater is 285 miles (456 kilometres) across, which is nearly equal to Vesta's 330-mile (530-kilometre) diameter.
Credit:
About the Image
NASA press release
NASA caption
NASA caption
| Id: | opo0727d |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 20 June 2007, 16:30 |
| Size: | 1500 x 1200 px |
About the Object
| Name: | Vesta |
| Type: | • Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Asteroid |
Colours & filters
| Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
| Optical B |
439 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Optical Sii |
673 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
