NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Views Dark Side of Vesta

[n2doc]

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 23, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers) away from the protoplanet Vesta. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

July 28, 2011 - PASADENA, Calif. -- Dawn took this image over Vesta’s northern hemisphere after the spacecraft completed its first passage over the dark side of the giant asteroid. It is northern hemisphere winter on Vesta now, so its north pole is in deep shadow.
The Dawn science team is working to determine the significance of the distinct features in this image, which include large grooves or ridges extending for great distances around Vesta.
This image was taken by Dawn's framing camera on July 23, from a distance of 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers).
The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA. The University of California, Los Angeles, is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing cameras have been developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The Framing Camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.
Priscilla Vega [phone]
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/feature_stories/dawn_spacecraft_views_vesta.asp

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/vesta_dawn_gallery.asp

[Warpy]

1. Now I want an almond.

Vesta not only looks like she's had a rough life, it also looks like she might have originated from something larger.

[Submariner]

2. It's amazing the amount of damage it has for just being 6000 years old

The Dawn spacecraft will leave Vesta soon for the even larger Ceres for a 2015 encounter. Cool stuff.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. There is no dark side of Vesta ... as a matter of fact it's all dark.

Thanks for the post! ;)

[byronius]

4. My God! That's a giant clawprint!

Sorry. Human brain pattern-stuff.

So cool, that image. Just plain shockin'.