Asteroidul urias care pune pe ganduri savantii NASA. --"Seamana mult cu planeta noastra".

Sonda spatiala Dawn, care cerceteaza de peste un an de zile uriasul asteroid Vesta, a oferit informatii neasteptate specialistilor de la NASA. Este foarte diferit fata de ce credeau. Filmuletul de mai jos este realizat prin montarea unor fotografii realizate de sonda Dawn, care se afla pe orbita asteroidului Vesta, unde a ajuns in iulie 2011. Pe langa aceste imagini desoebite, sonda spatiala a furnizat si informatii foarte importante. Vesta seamana foarte mult cu Terra, avand un nucleu de fier, la fel ca planeta noastra. Asta inseamna ca este de fapt o protoplaneta, o roca uriasa care ar putea forma o alt corp ceresc, pentru ca luat nastere in mod similar Terrei. Candva, sub suprafata ei exista si un ocean de magma, spun savantii NASA. Cele mai uimitoare imagini cu planeta Pamant! Cum arata un fulger vazut din Statia Spatiala Internationala Vesta are o varsta venerabila: 4,56 miliarde de ani. Diametrul ei este de 110 km, iar relieful este foarte variat: are munti inalti si cratere, multe dintre ele foarte adanci, cu margini aproape verticale. Vesta este si sursa multor meteoriti care au lovit Pamantul in decursul timpului, aproximativ 6% dintre acestia avandu-si originea aici. La randul sau, asteroidul a fost supus unor coliziuni majore cu alte corpuri ceresti.

Incredible video 'fly-over' by Nasa's Dawn probe reveals huge rippled

1

asteroid Vesta is more like a small planet

Ancient asteroid has iron core, like Earth Formed in similar way to our own planet Video flyover built from data obtained by orbiting satellite since 2011

By Rob Waugh PUBLISHED: 10:50 GMT, 15 May 2012 | UPDATED: 12:36 GMT, 15 May 2012

It's very unlikely that anyone on Earth will ever enjoy a flight over the huge asteroid Vesta, the second-biggest in the asteroid belt - but Nasa's satellite Dawn has created the next best thing. The Nasa video 'flyover' has revealed that Vesta is a 'building block' of a planet, with an iron core, like Earth, which formed in a similar way to our planet and our own moon. The video was created from Dawn's collection of images built up since it entered orbit in July 2011, including the first looks inside mysterious craters first spotted by the Hubble space telescope.

Scroll down for video

The video was created from Dawn's enormous collection of data on the rock collected as it has orbited since July 2011, including the first looks inside mysterious craters first spotted by the Hubble space telescope

One of the 'snowman' group of craters on Vesta: The 'flyover' has revealed that Vesta is a 'building block' of a planet, with an iron core, like Earth, which formed in a similar way to our planet and our own moon

Although Vesta and its family are located between Mars and Jupiter, smaller pieces of these asteroids can be found in meteorite collections on Earth, including most eucrite, howardite and diogenite meteorites

'Dawn's visit to Vesta has confirmed our broad theories of this giant asteroid's history, while helping to fill in details it would have been impossible to know from afar,' said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. 'Dawn's residence at Vesta of nearly a year has made the asteroid's planetlike qualities obvious and shown us our connection to that bright orb in our night sky. Scientists now see Vesta as a layered, planetary building block with an iron core the only one known to survive the earliest days of the solar system.

More...

Let's build the Enterprise! Star Trek fan unveils bold plan to make Captain Kirk's space ship within 20 years Watch out, iPad: Next Kindle to have a built-in reading light

The asteroid's geologic complexity can be attributed to a process that separated the asteroid into a crust, mantle and iron core with a radius of approximately 68 miles about 4.56 billion years ago. The terrestrial planets and Earth's moon formed in a similar way. Dawn observed a pattern of minerals exposed by deep gashes created by space rock impacts, which may support the idea the asteroid once had a subsurface magma ocean. A magma ocean occurs when a body undergoes almost complete melting, leading to layered building blocks that can form planets. Other bodies with magma oceans ended up becoming parts of Earth and other planets.

Scientists now see Vesta as a layered, planetary building block with an iron core - the only one known to survive the earliest days of the solar system

Although Vesta and its family are located between Mars and Jupiter, smaller pieces of these asteroids can be found in meteorite collections on Earth, including most eucrite, howardite and diogenite meteorites

Data also confirm a distinct group of meteorites found on Earth did, as theorized, originate from Vesta. The signatures of pyroxene, an iron- and magnesium-rich mineral, in those meteorites match those of rocks on Vesta's surface. These objects account for about 6 percent of all meteorites seen falling on Earth. This makes the asteroid one of the largest single sources for Earth's meteorites. The finding also marks the first time a spacecraft has been able to visit the source of samples after they were identified on Earth. Scientists now know Vesta's topography is quite steep and varied. Some craters on Vesta formed on very steep slopes and have nearly vertical sides, with landslides occurring more frequently than expected. Another unexpected finding was that the asteroid's central peak in the Rheasilvia basin in the southern hemisphere is much higher and wider,

relative to its crater size, than the central peaks of craters on bodies like our moon. Vesta also bears similarities to other low-gravity worlds like Saturn's small icy moons, and its surface has light and dark markings that don't match the predictable patterns on Earth's moon. 'We know a lot about the moon and we're only coming up to speed now on Vesta,' said Vishnu Reddy, a framing camera team member at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany and the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. 'Comparing the two gives us two storylines for how these fraternal twins evolved in the early solar system.' Dawn has revealed details of ongoing collisions that battered Vesta throughout its history. Dawn scientists now can date the two giant impacts that pounded Vesta's southern hemisphere and created the basin Veneneia approximately 2 billion years ago and the Rheasilvia basin about 1 billion years ago. Rheasilvia is the largest impact basin on Vesta. 'The large impact basins on the moon are all quite old,' said David O'Brien, a Dawn participating scientist from the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona. 'The fact that the largest impact on Vesta is so young was surprising.' Video 'fly-over' by Nasa's Dawn probe reveals surface of asteroid Vesta

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2144652/Asteroid-VestaNasas-Dawn-probe-reveals-huge-rippled-asteroid-like-smallplanet.html#ixzz1v3AshXCq