[meteorite-list] NASA Dawn Spacecraft Returns Close-Up Image ofVesta

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:46:18 -0500
Message-ID: <B50E22B7425740BF946AFA1970F117FF_at_ATARIENGINE2>

Anyone having trouble finding the full sized images?

07-17-11
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/pia14313.html

Anaglyptic image:
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/571438main_pia14314-full_full.jpg

Enhanced Viuew of South Pole
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/571364main_pia14315-full_full.jpg

Large Composite image
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/571423main_pia14316-full_full.jpg


Sterling K. Webb
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 2:20 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] NASA Dawn Spacecraft Returns Close-Up Image
ofVesta


>
> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-213
>
> NASA Dawn Spacecraft Returns Close-Up Image of Vesta
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory
> July 18, 2011
>
> [Image]
> This is the first image obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft after
> successfully entering orbit around Vesta.
> Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
>
> PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned the first
> close-up image after beginning its orbit around the giant asteroid
> Vesta. On Friday, July 15, Dawn became the first probe to enter orbit
> around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
>
> The image taken for navigation purposes shows Vesta in greater detail
> than ever before. When Vesta captured Dawn into its orbit, there were
> approximately 9,900 miles (16,000 kilometers) between the spacecraft
> and
> asteroid. Engineers estimate the orbit capture took place at 10 p.m.
> PDT
> Friday, July 15 (1 a.m. EDT Saturday, July 16).
>
> Vesta is 330 miles (530 kilometers) in diameter and the second most
> massive object in the asteroid belt. Ground- and space-based
> telescopes
> have obtained images of Vesta for about two centuries, but they have
> not
> been able to see much detail on its surface.
>
> "We are beginning the study of arguably the oldest extant primordial
> surface in the solar system," said Dawn principal investigator
> Christopher Russell from the University of California, Los Angeles.
> "This region of space has been ignored for far too long. So far, the
> images received to date reveal a complex surface that seems to have
> preserved some of the earliest events in Vesta's history, as well as
> logging the onslaught that Vesta has suffered in the intervening
> eons."
>
> Vesta is thought to be the source of a large number of meteorites that
> fall to Earth. Vesta and its new NASA neighbor, Dawn, are currently
> approximately 117 million miles (188 million kilometers) away from
> Earth. The Dawn team will begin gathering science data in August.
> Observations will provide unprecedented data to help scientists
> understand the earliest chapter of our solar system. The data also
> will
> help pave the way for future human space missions.
>
> After traveling nearly four years and 1.7 billion miles (2.8 billion
> kilometers), Dawn also accomplished the largest propulsive
> acceleration
> of any spacecraft, with a change in velocity of more than 4.2 miles
> per
> second (6.7 kilometers per second), due to its ion engines. The
> engines
> expel ions to create thrust and provide higher spacecraft speeds than
> any other technology currently available.
>
> "Dawn slipped gently into orbit with the same grace it has displayed
> during its years of ion thrusting through interplanetary space," said
> Marc Rayman, Dawn chief engineer and mission manager at NASA's Jet
> Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It is fantastically
> exciting
> that we will begin providing humankind its first detailed views of one
> of the last unexplored worlds in the inner solar system."
>
> Although orbit capture is complete, the approach phase will continue
> for
> about three weeks. During approach, the Dawn team will continue a
> search
> for possible moons around the asteroid; obtain more images for
> navigation; observe Vesta's physical properties; and obtain
> calibration
> data.
>
> In addition, navigators will measure the strength of Vesta's
> gravitational tug on the spacecraft to compute the asteroid's mass
> with
> much greater accuracy than has been previously available. That will
> allow them to refine the time of orbit insertion.
>
> Dawn will spend one year orbiting Vesta, then travel to a second
> destination, the dwarf planet Ceres, arriving in February 2015. The
> mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL for the agency's Science
> Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the
> directorate's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall
> Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
>
> UCLA is responsible for Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp.
> of
> Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace
> Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the
> Italian
> Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are part
> of the mission's team.
>
> To view the image and obtain more information about the Dawn mission,
> visit: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn and http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/
>
> To follow the mission on Twitter, visit:
> http://www.twitter.com/NASA_Dawn .
>
> Priscilla Vega 818-354-1357
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
> priscilla.r.vega at jpl.nasa.gov
>
> Dwayne C. Brown 202-358-1726
> NASA Headquarters, Washington
> dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov
>
> 2011-213
>
> ______________________________________________
> Visit the Archives at
> http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Mon 18 Jul 2011 05:46:18 PM PDT