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Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

New Flyover Video of Asteroid Vesta!

23 Sep 2011 – 15:55

NASA has released new video of asteroid Vesta, taken by the orbiting Dawn spacecraft.  The video, compiled from images collected by Dawn’s framing camera, shows a flyover view of the large asteroid, detailing features such as craters, mountains, cliffs and troughs.  Dawn has been in orbit around Vesta since July and will spend one year thoroughly studying the asteroid’s geology, chemistry and more. Insights gained there will help build the link between Vesta and the howardite-eucrite-diogenite (HED) class of meteorites.  After its year at Vesta, Dawn will depart and head to a rendezvous with the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt, in 2015.  Dawn is one of NASA’s Discovery class missions.  Click here for the latest Vesta images and Dawn mission updates.