Vesta is an asteroid, in many ways curious. This is the only such object that can be seen with the naked eye. By mass and size, Vesta is superior to most other known asteroids in the space between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. In its parameters, it is even closer to dwarf planets. Located in the main asteroid belt, Vesta refers to bodies formed around the same period as the Earth, which means that it can tell a lot about the distant past of our system.
Opening
Vesta is an asteroid discovered during the search for a planet between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. According to the theory, the distribution of orbits in the space around the Sun obeys a certain regularity. All the planets known at the beginning of the 19th century fit into this theory. The only exceptions were Jupiter and Mars. The huge space between them was supposed to hide an unknown planet. During her search, many elements of the Main Asteroid Belt were discovered.
He was discovered in 1807 by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers. Another scientist, Karl Gauss, gave her the name of the ancient Roman goddess of the hearth. The name has been fixed and is still in use.
Parameters
After Ceres was attributed to the dwarf planets, Vesta in size is in second place among the asteroids after Pallas. Its parameters are 578 × 560 × 458 km. The noticeable asymmetry of form does not allow attributing Vesta to dwarf planets. By mass (2.59 * 10 20 kg), it is ahead of Pallada, that is, in the Main belt of asteroids only this same Ceres surpasses it in this parameter.
Does the asteroid Vesta have an atmosphere?
Asteroids do not just stand out in a separate class of cosmic bodies. They differ from planets in a number of parameters: size, shape, mass, and so on. Signs characteristic of an asteroid do not allow it to hold the gas shell. Therefore, the answer to the question “does the West asteroid have an atmosphere” is negative. Extremely rarefied gas shell exists on Ceres. Other bodies in the Main Belt cannot boast of such a characteristic as the asteroid West. Has the atmosphere of Earth, Venus, Mars, gas giants and some satellites. Asteroids are too small for this.
How to see the asteroid West?
Thanks to brightness, Vesta can be seen with the naked eye. Although it is inferior in size to Ceres and Pallas, it is characterized by a more significant reflectivity. Other asteroids from the Earth cannot be seen without special equipment.
The best time to search for an asteroid in the sky is the days of confrontation, when it approaches the minimum distance to Earth. During these periods, its brightness increases to 5.1 m (the minimum value of this parameter is 8.5 m). The last time such a confrontation occurred in April 2014.
Vesta is approaching a minimum distance to our planet every 3-4 years. Without a telescope, you can see it only in conditions of good visibility. However, it does not differ from ordinary stars.
Traffic
The orbit of Vesta lies in the interior of the Main asteroid belt. Its shape is only slightly elongated - it is an almost perfect circle. The orbit is characterized by a slight inclination to the plane of the ecliptic. Vesta makes one revolution around the Sun in 3.6 years. Moreover, during its movement, the asteroid does not cross the orbit of our planet.
Automatic Interplanetary Station Dawn
In 2011, in July, Vesta passed the minimum distance to our planet. This period was used for a detailed study of the asteroid. Back in 2007, Dawn went to Vest. The mission of the device is to study this asteroid, as well as the dwarf planet Ceres.
Dawn entered the circular orbit of Vesta on July 16, 2011. By December 12, he had reached a minimum height above the asteroid. Among the tasks of the apparatus were the measurement of the gravitational field, the determination of the spectrum of neutrons and gamma-quanta that appears when cosmic rays fall on the asteroid Vesta. Photos of the object began to arrive on Earth on December 13.
AMC Dawn left the asteroid on September 5, 2012 and went to Ceres. Today (December 2015), the device continues to operate in the orbit of a dwarf planet.
Sight
Vesta is an asteroid carefully examined by the Hubble telescope. Research was conducted in the 90s of the last century. Hubble studied the surface of an asteroid. The most impressive detail of the relief was a giant crater, later called Reyasilvia. The track presumably left from the collision is characterized by a diameter of 460 km and a depth of 13 km. Scientists still can not answer the question of how Vesta was able to survive such a blow.
AMC Dawn also studied the state of the crater. According to scientists, Reyasilvia was formed 1 billion years ago. The crater basin partially hides the trail from another more ancient impact, called the Veneniai crater. In the center of Reyasilvia there is a mountain 22 km high and 180 km in diameter. In terms of its parameters, it is ahead of the giant Olympus on Mars, previously considered the highest known mountain in the solar system.
Scientists suggest that the substance ejected during the impact served as the material for the emergence of objects of the Vesta family and class V asteroids.
Researchers turn their eyes to such objects, since they can tell a lot about the time when the solar system was just forming. Vesta is an asteroid similar in composition to terrestrial planets. Most likely, its study will tell astronomers a lot about the distant past of our piece of the Galaxy.