[meteorite-list] NASA's Dawn Science Team Presents EarlyScience Results

From: Richard Montgomery <rickmont_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:54:23 -0700
Message-ID: <7C3A86EA6AA1488082014F114F255DB0_at_bosoheadPC>

Good one, Michael Murray...intriguing proposal to the bigger questions.

Richard Montgomery




----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Murray" <mikebevmurray at gmail.com>
To: "Ron Baalke" <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
Cc: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 1:18 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] NASA's Dawn Science Team Presents EarlyScience
Results


> Ron and List,
> Thanks as always Ron for posting these articles. I look at the pictures
> of the mountain/central complex on the south polar region of Vesta and
> can't help but wonder, could that "mountain" actually be a rebound peak?
> Mike in CO
> On Oct 12, 2011, at 1:26 PM, Ron Baalke wrote:
>
>>
>> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-319
>>
>> NASA's Dawn Science Team Presents Early Science Results
>> Jet Propulsion Laboratory
>> October 12, 2011
>>
>> Scientists with NASA's Dawn mission are sharing with other scientists
>> and the public their early information about the southern hemisphere of
>> the giant asteroid Vesta. The findings were presented today at the
>> annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Minneapolis,
>> Minn.
>>
>> Dawn, which has been orbiting Vesta since mid-July, has found that the
>> asteroid's southern hemisphere boasts one of the largest mountains in
>> the solar system. Other findings show that Vesta's surface, viewed by
>> Dawn at different wavelengths, has striking diversity in its
>> composition, particularly around craters. Science findings also include
>> an in-depth analysis of a set of equatorial troughs on Vesta and a
>> closer look at the object's intriguing craters. The surface appears to
>> be much rougher than most asteroids in the main asteroid belt. In
>> addition, preliminary dates from a method that uses the number of
>> craters indicate that areas in the southern hemisphere are as young as 1
>> billion to 2 billion years old, much younger than areas in the north.
>>
>> Scientists do not yet understand how all the features on Vesta's surface
>> formed, but they did announce today, after analysis of northern and
>> southern troughs, that results are consistent with models of fracture
>> formation due to giant impact.
>>
>> Since July, the Dawn spacecraft has been spiraling closer and closer to
>> Vesta, moving in to get better and better views of the surface. In early
>> August, the spacecraft reached an orbital altitude of 1,700 miles (2,700
>> kilometers) and mapped most of the sunlit surface, during survey orbit,
>> with its framing camera and visible and infrared mapping spectrometer.
>>
>> That phase was completed in late August, and the spacecraft began moving
>> in to what is known as High Altitude Mapping Orbit at about 420 miles
>> (680 kilometers) above Vesta, which it reached on Sept. 29.
>>
>> An archive of the live news conference is available for viewing at:
>> http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .
>>
>> The Dawn scientists also shared their findings at the recent European
>> Planetary Science Congress and the Division of Planetary Sciences Joint
>> Meeting 2011 in Nantes, France.
>>
>> Dawn launched in September 2007 and arrived at Vesta on July 15, 2011.
>> Following a year at Vesta, the spacecraft will depart in July 2012 for
>> the dwarf planet Ceres, where it will arrive in 2015.
>>
>> Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by the Jet Propulsion
>> Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
>> Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology
>> in Pasadena. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program,
>> managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA
>> is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp.
>> in 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
>> international partners on the mission team.
>>
>> For 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
>>
>> 2011-319
>>
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Received on Wed 12 Oct 2011 09:54:23 PM PDT