Vesta Trek: A Digital Model of Asteroid Vesta
Explanation:
You can explore asteroid Vesta.
Recently, NASA's robotic spaceship
Dawn visited
Vesta,
the second largest object in our Solar System's main
asteroid
belt,
which lies between
Mars and
Jupiter.
During a year-long stopover,
Dawn's cameras photographed
Vesta's entire surface, documenting all of the
minor planet's major mountains
and craters.
These images have now been combined into a
digital model that allows
anyone with a full-featured browser to
fly all around Vesta, virtually,
and even zoom in on
interesting
surface
features, by just dragging and clicking.
If desired, the initially flat 2D map can be wrapped into a
nearly spherical object by clicking on the 3D icon at the bottom.
Dawn departed Vesta in 2012 and is now just beginning to photograph and explore the
mysteries of the largest object in the asteroid belt:
dwarf-planet
Ceres.
News:
Ceres' mysterious bright spots come back into view.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
