[meteorite-list] Vesta in Dawn's Rear View Mirror

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:08:04 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201209111908.q8BJ84rJ015262_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-284

Vesta in Dawn's Rear View Mirror
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
September 11, 2012

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Dawn mission is releasing two parting views of
the giant asteroid Vesta, using images that were among the last taken by
the spacecraft as it departed its companion for the last year.

The first set of images is a color-coded relief map of Vesta's northern
hemisphere, from the pole to the equator. It incorporates images taken
just as Dawn began to creep over the high northern latitudes, which were
dark when Dawn arrived in July 2011. The other image is a
black-and-white mosaic that shows a full view of the giant asteroid,
created by synthesizing some of Dawn's best images.

"Dawn has peeled back the veil on some of the mysteries surrounding
Vesta, but we're still working hard on more analysis," said Christopher
Russell, Dawn's principal investigator at UCLA. "So while Vesta is now
out of sight, it will not be out of mind."

These will be the last daily images during the cruise to Dawn's second
destination, the dwarf planet Ceres. Other images will be highlighted as
findings are made. Other data will be archived at http://pds.nasa.gov .

Dawn left Vesta on Sept. 4, 2012 PDT (Sept. 5, 2012 EDT). The spacecraft
is using its ion propulsion system to travel to Ceres. It is expected to
arrive in early 2015.

JPL manages the Dawn mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program,
managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The
University of California at Los Angeles (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. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena
manages JPL for NASA.
  
For more information about Dawn, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn and
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .

Jia-Rui Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook at jpl.nasa.gov

2012-284
Received on Tue 11 Sep 2012 03:08:04 PM PDT