[meteorite-list] AD - Vesta and HEDs

From: valparint at aol.com <valparint_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 12 May 2012 14:20:15 -0700
Message-ID: <2BEFBE4E3AF24435AB70F1A4B95183FC_at_vpoffsiteweb.local>

The commemorative coin that brings it all together

        http://www.tucsonmeteorites.com/tatacoin.asp

Cheers

Paul Swartz
IMCA 5204

> Recent results of the Dawn mission show that the asteroid Vesta is the
> only known remnant from a big early phase of planet formation.
>
> The cameras help NASA's Dawn space probe the mysteries of the asteroid
> Vesta. The color images now confirm: Vesta is a relic from the early
> solar system. Because of the surprisingly heterogeneous celestial body
> is more like a planet than a primitive asteroid. In addition, recent
> studies show that most of HED meteorites - a special group of
> meteorites - are in fact, fragments of Vesta.
>
> Since the summer of 2011, two cameras on board the spacecraft orbiting
> the asteroid Vesta, Dawn - one that is currently in operation, and a
> backup camera. With this camera system, the scientists, led by the
> Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) designed and
> built, supplied by NASA planetary scientist with the probe image data
> of the previously almost unexplored asteroid. The "framing cameras"
> are equipped with seven different color filters and a clear filter.
> You can do much more than a "normal" camera: The color filters can
> decipher the exact composition of the reflected light from Vesta.
> Thus, the scientists map the surface of their research subject and
> draw conclusions about its mineralogical composition.
>
> After ten months of meticulous observations of the planet, scientists
> are now certain that the celestial body is unlike any previously
> studied asteroid. Vesta is a kind of living fossil prehistory of
> planet formation. Even the diameter stands, with 525 kilometers, as
> the third largest asteroid of all. "Vesta is a proto-planet," said the
> lead investigator of the camera crews, Nathues Andreas, "and is
> therefore in a primitive stage of development, from which have been
> once the giant planets such as Earth and Mars formed. Vesta is
> probably the last specimen of this species of celestial bodies. The
> measurements of the other instruments on-board support this
> interpretation.

> Benjamin P. Sun
Received on Sat 12 May 2012 05:20:15 PM PDT