Comments on: Dawn of a new Vesta

By: MaDeR

MaDeR — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:40:35 +0000

“I think Hoagland has completely lost connection to all reality.”
You realised it just now?

By: Strahlungsamt

Strahlungsamt — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:26:58 +0000

I think someone beat me to the Hoagland article.

By: Strahlungsamt

Strahlungsamt — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:26:12 +0000

http://dorkmission.blogspot.com/2011/07/hoagland-gets-it-wrong-five-ways.html

Our old friend Richard C. Hoagland is on Vesta’s case already….. 90 degree angles that nobody else sees… Definitely proof of an alien civilization.

By: drksky

drksky — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:56:44 +0000

I think Hoagland has completely lost connection to all reality. He was on Coast2Coast this morning spewing a bunch of garbage about geometric patterns on the surface of Vesta that could only be from an ancient, extinct society. And, of course, NASA is only releasing one image a day because they’re covering something up because they have lied about so much in the past blah blah blah….

Does anyone actually listen to him seriously any more? Did they ever?

By: andy

andy — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:39:18 +0000

I can’t wait until the topographic maps come out. Then we can start playing around with this in 3D programs to explore the place, it’s certainly got some landscapes worth seeing!

By: Vesta: The Last Remaining Planetary Embryo « astrobites

Vesta: The Last Remaining Planetary Embryo « astrobites — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:33:42 +0000

[...] to enter orbit around an asteroid in the main asteroid belt! You can check out the story on the Bad Astronomy blog or NASA’s news [...]

By: Zucchi

Zucchi — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:31:05 +0000

I see I’ve been beaten to the punch in referencing “Marooned Off Vesta”. Man, I wish Asimov were alive to see this. Think of the science column he’d write for F&SF. But, hey, we’ve got Phil!

And, Boomer, I’m not going to ask why you need to be able to do the search with one hand. I’m excited too.

By: Boomer

Boomer — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:58:21 +0000

I love words that I can type into Google search with one hand, ie. Vesta

By: mike burkhart

mike burkhart — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:07:36 +0000

I’ve heard that some asteroids have moons , but this is the frist time I’ve heard that Vesta might have any . One idea I,ve read about is that we might be able to mine Asteroids for minerals in fact we may have to since minerals from the Earth may be depleated one day. Not to brag but on the video game Asteriods I’ve fliped the score (when it reaches 99999 the score returns to 0) on the original and the Atari 2600 , but as for Asteroids Deluxe I haven’t because the game is 100x harder then the original and can accomidate a higer score. in the updated version for Playstation the game ends after the last level .

By: Calli Arcale

Calli Arcale — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:59:50 +0000

QuietDesperation — there is another possibility I’ve heard suggested by people who know more about this stuff than I do. Volcanism points to a geologically active core, which requires something to melt it. That can be tidal flexing (Io, Europa), radioactive elements, or the lingering results of a really cataclysmic impact. This last is plausible for asteroids, which we know get smacked around a lot. But, as you say, it’s just a hypothesis — that it *could* happen doesn’t mean it does, and nobody’s actually seen any evidence that it’s happening. (But then, that’s what they said about Venus and Io. I won’t rule it out; we’ve been surprised before. But I won’t expect it either.)

By: Calli Arcale

Calli Arcale — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:57:35 +0000

Messier Tidy Upper — The Little Prince is one of my favorite stories ever. It still makes me cry. And there is actually an asteroid named for it now — 46610 Besixdouze. The name is French for “B Six Twelve”. (And 46610 is what you get if you convert the hexadecimal number B612 into decimal.) There is also 2578 Saint-Exupéry, and the asteroid 45 Eugenia has a moon which is named Petit-Prince.

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:50:36 +0000

@ Blake: I know what you mean. Asteroids seem boring now. It’s no Titan landing. We’re so spoiled.

MTU: Vesta was once volcanic too ..

Are asteroids big enough to have geologically active cores? I haz a skepticism. It’s not orbiting a large planet that can flex it to create heat, like Io. Google suggests it’s still just a hypothesis.

By: PSP

PSP — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:03:26 +0000

Hmmm, did anybody else notice that big footprint about 6 o’clock? Obviously, we’re not the first ones here…

By: Georg

Georg — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:51:51 +0000

Is there some chaperon along with dawn?
You know, that a vestal virgin was buried alive when caught
at an entanglement with some man….:=)

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:33:22 +0000

Update : Atlantis has, indeed, undocked from the International Space Station for the final time. This was covered live by a local Aussie TV news show.

See :

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-19/atlantis-crew-farewells-space-station/2800668

for news or NASA’s Shuttle page here :

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

for the latest. Mission elapsed time now 10 days, 17 hours 43 minutes.

I thought this mission (STS-135) was to last twelve days and, indeed, was extended by one day. Wikipedia :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-135

seems to confirm this providing a landing scheduled for the 21st July 2011 5:56 a.m. EDT (9:56 UTC) at KSC so I’m kinda surprised they’ve undocked and departed the ISS this far out from that date. Anyone here know why and care to enlighten us please?

By: Blake

Blake — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 08:06:02 +0000

I guess I’ve just been spoiled by all the amazing missions that happened in the first half of the last decade, but, well, I’m just not getting excited about this mission yet, like…. at all. I feel bad for saying it, I mean I know it’s a first, but after NEAR Shoemaker, Cassini and the Huygens lander, Hayabusa, the Mars rovers, the DS1 Borrelly flyby, Deep Impact, etc. this is kind of, eh….boring. It’s just a dusty old rock that looks pretty much how everyone imagined it would. Hopefully Ceres will be more exciting since it’s differentiated and has water ice on the surface, maybe even a subsurface ocean. Don’t get me wrong, the scientists on Dawn obviously have a lot to be proud of and I’m really glad to see the DS1 ion engine technology being put to practical use on a full deep space science mission, but more than anything, at least thus far, this mission makes me appreciate what a really amazing time for exploration the early ’00s were.

By: JB of Brisbane

JB of Brisbane — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:34:32 +0000

@Messier #27 – I was wondering if I should make another “Little Prince” reference here. Thanks for going first.

By: MadScientist

MadScientist — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 06:32:57 +0000

I vote for the lighting effect; isn’t it peculiar how all the ‘shallow’ craters are in the same region and the craters get deeper as you get further away and have the light coming in more from the edge?

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 05:55:18 +0000

@ ^ Cynthia : Well Vesta’s no B-612* but it is a lot roomier and, who knows, it may one day have life brought out to it. If we humans ever venture out that far in person.

@22. Kappy : Thanks.

I never would have guessed I was looking at the south polar crater here!

@16. Alan(UK) : Also in other space-related news, just heard on the TV (a headline at that) that the Shuttle astronauts have just said farewell to the ISS crew and are heading home now or very shortly. Must admit I thought they still had more time left.

———————

* The Little Prince’s asteroid home – house-sized with 3 volcanoes. Vesta was once volcanic too .. doubt we’ll find any roses there though!

Click on my name for its wiki-page.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 05:13:31 +0000

So beautiful but it looks so dead……..

By: Buzz Parsec

Buzz Parsec — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:19:34 +0000

Peter C, were you at TAM9? There was a big BMX convention at the same hotel. (I’m at a Starbucks, recaffeinating and catching up on the intertubes while wending my way to the airport. P.S. BA, great meeting you and Mrs BA!

By: ethanol

ethanol — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:39:50 +0000

Emily at the planetary society blog has posted a cool new picture from a different angle where you can really see the striations around that peak. http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003104/

By: Das Boese

Das Boese — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:03:26 +0000

First MESSENGER and now Dawn, this is shaping up to be a great year for space exploration. And it’s barely half over!

By: Kappy

Kappy — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:57:56 +0000

@Messier Tidy Upper:

“There’s ahuge southpolar crater on Vesta – looking forward to seeing Dawn‘s close up images of that.”

I’m pretty sure that is what we are looking at in this image (although I’m not sure you could call it a closeup), the crater is thought to be some 300km wide. I think the “Mountain” in the center of this image is actually from the rebound of the impact. The scarps on the upper right and down along the right edge are likely the rim of the impact crater. From a “side” view, Vesta should look kinda flattened due to the fact that a huge amount of the southern hemisphere has been blown off by the impact.

-kap

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:45:27 +0000

@10. Sir Chaos :

This is beautiful.BTW, have any of you read “Marooned off Vesta” by Isaac Asimov? It´s the first SF story I ever read (I must have been about 8 or so), and coincidentally also the first Asimov ever sold, so of all the asteroids Vesta will always be “special” for me.

As a huge Asimov fan myself, I sure have!

Oh & guess what image now accompanies its entry on Wikipedia?

(Click on my name and see.)