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Credit & Copyright: NASA,
JPL-Caltech,
UCLA,
MPS, DLR, IDA;
Animation:
German Aerospace
Center (DRL)
Explanation:
What would it be like to fly over the asteroid Vesta?
Animators from the
German Aerospace
Center recently took actual images and height data from
NASA's Dawn
mission currently visiting Vesta to
generate such a virtual movie.
The above video begins
with a sequence above
Divalia Fossa, an unusual pair of troughs running parallel over heavily cratered
terrain.
Next, the virtual spaceship explores
Vesta's 60-km
Marcia
Crater, showing numerous vivid details.
Last, Dawn images were digitally recast with
exaggerated height to better reveal
Vesta's 5-km high mountain Aricia
Tholus.
Currently,
Dawn is
rising away
from Vesta after being close enough to obtain the
most detailed
surface images and
gravity measurements of the Solar System's second largest
asteroid.
In August,
Dawn is
scheduled
to blast away from Vesta and head toward
Ceres, the Solar System's largest asteroid.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Vesta
Publications with words: Vesta
See also: