Comments on: Dawn dips down to Vesta

By: Marc JX8P

Marc JX8P — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:30:40 +0000

Absolutely amazing picture, really makes you feel like you’re there…

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:45:09 +0000

@ ^ ” I think Hayabusa actually orbited it for a time anyhow.”

See :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa#In_proximity_of_Itokawa

which suggests maybe not quite.

Click on my name this comment for a great if silent Youtube clip showing an animation of what the Hayabusa mission did as well. Or cut’n'paste :

HAYABUSA Probe Mission overview CG/ JAXA

into the Youtube search box.

See :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEAR_Shoemaker#Orbits_and_landing

For more NEAR Shoemaker~wise & note also the Rosetta mission :

http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov/dsp_overview.cfm

which will “accompany” (& land on) comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko around our Sun if all goes to plan as well.

Hope this is useful / enjoyable for y’all.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:35:10 +0000

@1. amstrad asked : “How does one maintain a reasonably predicatable orbit around such a low mass and lumpy object?”

By using good science and good rocketry that’s how!

Also getting in pretty very close and using the thrusters to adjust the orbit and match velocities effectively. It is pretty neat that they can do this – and remember that we’ve orbited much smaller asteroids than Vesta before already eg. asteroid Eros with the NEAR-Shoemaker spaceprobe and Japan’s Hayabusa around asteroid Itokawa which I think holds the record for smallest rock yet orbited. I think Hayabusa actually orbited it for a time anyhow.

BTW. Click on my name for youtube clip on one instrument that may have helped at least with asteroid Eros.

Awesome image here – well done Dawn can’t wait to see Ceres in such detail too.

By: Tony Mach

Tony Mach — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:27:50 +0000

For me, how I think the form of this crater should be and how the shadow therefore should look like doesn’t add up to how it actually looks like. I wonder what I am missing.

By: Dawn at Vesta | ***Dave Does the Blog

Dawn at Vesta | ***Dave Does the Blog — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:06:13 +0000

[...] next five months, and then it'll set its sights for the next destination: Ceres.Embedded Link Dawn dips down to Vesta | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine Astronomy | Ceres | Last July, the spacecraft Dawn slipped into orbit around Vesta, one of the [...]

By: Douglas Troy

Douglas Troy — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:43:30 +0000

Phil, every time I read one of your write-ups on something like this, I feel like I’m reading the script for a TV show called CSI Astronomy.

“Next Week, Phil tries to determine if the smallish craters on the outer rim of the larger crater were caused by the suspect T11192-A from the Kuiper belt … or if it was just Col Mustard with the candle stick in the library, as usual”.

By: Bobby LaVesh

Bobby LaVesh — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:41:02 +0000

What’s the black shape in the bottom right- looks bell-like (on its side) seems a rather unnatural looking shadow for the peak. Is that just how the image is rendered.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:21:59 +0000

Like Jason says (above) and regardless of which direction the shadow comes from I always see craters as sticking out rather than in, like they should be. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was called something, just knowing would help. But the real issue is even if I download the pic and rotate it, it STILL looks wrong. Annoying, yes, and not your fault but was wondering if anyone knew what was going on with that?

By: ceramicfundamentalist

ceramicfundamentalist — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:02:15 +0000

cool pic, almost fractal. craters in craters in craters…

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:46:45 +0000

can we just say “terrain” ragardless of which object we’re observing, and know we’re referring to the ‘ground’ of said object?

Yes. It’s generic. It’s really not something to OCD about.