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PHOTO INDEX OF PRIMARY TARGETS ASTEROIDS COMETS EARTH JUPITER KUIPER BELT MARS MERCURY METEORITES NEPTUNE OORT CLOUD PLUTO SATURN SOLAR SYSTEM SPACE SUN URANUS VENUS ORDER PRINTS OTHER PHOTO INDEXES ALL TARGETS PHOTO CATEGORIES SCIENCEVIEWS AMPHIBIANS BIRDS BUGS FINE ART FOSSILS INDIAN ISLANDS MAMMALS OTHER PARKS PLANTS RELIGIOUS REPTILES ROCKS & MINERALS SCIENCEVIEWS PRINTS

Hubble Follows the Rotation of the Asteroid Vesta Target Name:   Asteroid Vesta Spacecraft:   HST Produced by:   B. Zellner (Georgia Southern University) and NASA Copyright:  NASA Copyright Free Policy Cross Reference:   STScI-PRC95-20A Date Released:  April 19, 1995 Related Document Asteroid Vesta Download Options Name Type Width x Height Size vesta24.gif GIF 800 x 600 216K This is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope series of 24 images showing the full 5.34-hour rotation of the 325-mile diameter (525 kilometer) asteroid Vesta. Hubble resolves features as small as 50 miles across, allowing astronomers to map Vesta's geologically diverse terrain. The surface is a complex record of Vesta's four billion-year history. Features include ancient lava flows, and a gigantic impact basin that is so deep, it exposes the asteroid's subsurface, or mantle. This sequence was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 between November 28 and December 1, 1994, when Vesta was at a distance of 156 million miles from Earth. When combined with ground-based data, astronomers will be able to make the first geochemical map of Vesta's surface.

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