NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Small Worlds Ceres and Vesta

Ceres [ http://www.planetar…ceres.html ] and Vesta [ http://hubblesite.o…1997/27 ] are, respectively, only around 950 kilometers and 530 kilometers in diameter - about the size of Texas and Arizona. But they are two of the largest of over 100,000 minor bodies [ http://nssdc.gsfc.n…asteroidfact.html ] orbiting in the main asteroid belt [ http://www.solstati…asteroid.htm ] between Mars and Jupiter. These remarkably detailed Hubble Space Telescope images [ http://hubblesite.o…2007/27/ ] show brightness and color variations across the surface of the two small worlds. The variations could represent large scale surface features or areas of different compositon. The Hubble image data will help astronomers plan for a visit by the asteroid-hopping Dawn spacecraft [ http://dawn.jpl.nas…], scheduled for launch on July 7 and intended to orbit first Vesta [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and then Ceres [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] after a four year interplanetary cruise. Though Shakespeare [ http://www.phrases.…] might not have been impressed, nomenclature introduced by the International Astronomical Union in 2006 classifies nearly spherical Ceres as a dwarf planet [ http://en.wikipedia…].

NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/], ESA [ http://www.spacetel…], L.McFadden, J.Y.Li (UMCP [ http://www.astro.um…]), M.Mutchler, Z.Levay (STScI [ http://www.stsci.ed…]), P.Thomas (Cornell [ http://astro.cornel…]),
J.Parker, E.Young (SwRI [ http://www.swri.edu/]), C.Russell, B.Schmidt (UCLA [ http://www.astro.uc…])

2006

Mars

Arizona

Jupiter

Texas

Vesta

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Mars

Jupiter

COMETS

Dawn

Vesta

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

2006

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap070622