Vesta is an asteroid visible to the naked eye. Vesta in the horoscope Meteorite Vesta

The celestial body, subject to cloudless weather, will be visible from 17:00 Wednesday to 07:00 Thursday at the latitude of Moscow. Cities such as Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk. You need to look for an asteroid in the southeastern part of the sky, between the constellations Leo and Gemini.

Vesta goes around the Sun in an almost circular orbit: at the farthest point it is 2.6 thousand times farther from the star than the Earth, at the closest point it is 2.2 times. Vesta's path runs along the main asteroid belt, which is located between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid completes one revolution around the Sun in 3.63 years. The closest distance that Vesta can come to Earth is 177 million km.

It can be a shame to miss the confrontation between the Sun and an asteroid: Vesta is the only asteroid that is visible to the naked eye and looks like a rather dim star. Its brightness will be 6.2 magnitude. The fact is that the magnitude scale has inverse values: the lower the indicator, the brighter the light (for comparison: one of the brightest stars, Polaris, has a magnitude of 1.97). It will be possible to examine Vesta later, but for this you will have to arm yourself with a telescope. The asteroid will continue its path across the sky, move from the constellation Cancer towards Gemini and move on.

Messenger from Vesta

It is curious that the inhabitants of the Earth were probably lucky enough to touch Vesta. In the 1960s, a meteorite fell in Australia. Analyzing later chemical composition fragment and after studying spectral analysis data, scientists came to the conclusion that it could have broken off from Vesta. The meteorite measures 9.6 x 8.1 x 8.7 cm and is composed of the mineral pyroxene, which is formed during periods of lava overflow. Its structure indicates that the mineral itself was once in a molten state. Vesta likely experienced a powerful collision with another object, after which at least one of its fragments fell to Earth.

The closest humanity has come to the asteroid was as part of NASA's Dawn mission. The automatic interplanetary station entered Vesta orbit in July 2011 and continued to explore it until September 2012. In one of the first images taken during the mission from a distance of 1.2 million km, the asteroid appears as a bright luminous spot due to the very large amount of light reflected by Vesta. The actual dimensions of the celestial body are much more modest.

• Image of the giant asteroid Vesta taken by the Rassvet spacecraft
• Reuters

Didn't come out tall

The Dawn mission confirmed data from the Hubble telescope: in the southern hemisphere of the asteroid, whose diameter exceeds 500 km, there is a huge impact crater, Rheasilvia. Its diameter is almost 460 km, and its depth is 12. Traces from many other collisions are also visible on the surface.

Vesta, which apparently formed during the formation of the solar system - about 4.6 billion years ago, has an iron-nickel core, a crust formed partly from solidified lava, and many traces of volcanic activity. The basalt surface, which reflects light well, is precisely the reason for the asteroid's brightness. Signs of the presence of water have been found on Vesta, there is its own Everest (it is almost three times higher than the Earth’s) and an interesting attraction - a series of craters called “Snowman”.

• A series of "Snowman" craters on the asteroid Vesta

The structure and history of the formation of Vesta make it somewhat similar to Earth and other planets. For this reason, it is also called a protoplanet that never grew to its size.

The Dawn spacecraft captured this image on July 17, 2011. It was located about 15,000 kilometers (9,500 miles) from Vesta. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Vesta is the second most massive object in the asteroid belt, second only to Ceres, which is classified as a dwarf planet. Vesta, the brightest asteroid in the sky, is sometimes visible from Earth with the naked eye. This is the first asteroid visited by a spacecraft. The Dawn mission showed us Vesta in 2011, providing new data about this rocky world.

In 1596, after studying planetary orbits, Johannes Kepler came to the conclusion that a planet must exist in the region between Mars and Jupiter. Mathematical calculations by Johann Daniel Titius and Johann Elert Bode in 1772, later known as the Titius-Bode law, seemed to support this prediction. In August 1798, a group of astronomers began searching for this missing planet. Among the latter was the German astronomer Heinrich Olbers. Olbers discovered the second asteroid known at that time - Pallas. In his letter to astronomers, he outlined the theory of the origin of these asteroids.

“Perhaps Ceres and Pallas are just a couple of fragments ... of a once larger planet that once lay between Mars and Jupiter,” he wrote.

Olbers believed that the fragments of this planet would intersect at the point of destruction and on the opposite side of the orbit. He observed these two regions and discovered Vesta on March 29, 1807, becoming the first person to discover two asteroids.

Vesta is unique among asteroids in that the light and dark areas on its surface are similar to those on the Moon. Ground-based observations have shown that the asteroid has basaltic areas, which suggests that lava flowed along its surface in the past. It has an irregular shape, approximately the same as an oblate spheroid.

As Vesta approached Earth in 1996, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged some of the object's topographical features. For example, a large crater at the south pole, the average diameter of which is about 460 kilometers, while Vesta itself is only 530 kilometers across. The crater is about 13 kilometers deep and was most likely formed by a major collision early in the asteroid's life. The material ejected from this collision resulted in a number of smaller vestoid asteroids that orbited their parent, as well as meteorites that crashed into Earth.

Unlike most asteroids, Vesta's structure is differentiated. Like planets, the asteroid has a crust of cooled lava that covers a rocky mantle and an iron-nickel core. These properties are an argument in favor of the fact that Vesta should be considered a protoplanet and not an asteroid.

In fact, if not for Jupiter, Vesta would have a good chance of becoming a planet.

“The velocities in the asteroid belt were really high, and the higher the velocities, the harder it is for planetesimals to come together,” said David O'Brien, a fellow at the institute in Tucson, Arizona.

In 1960, a fireball that streaked across the skies over Australia was later found to be part of Vesta. Composed almost entirely of pyroxene, the meteorite has the same spectral characteristics as Vesta.

In October 2010, the Hubble Space Telescope focused on Vesta again. The findings showed that the asteroid's tilt is about four degrees greater than researchers previously thought. This data helped NASA place the Dawn spacecraft in polar orbit around the asteroid.

The Dawn spacecraft, which has been studying the asteroid since 2012, has discovered that there is a surprisingly large amount of hydrogen on the surface of the rocky body. He also discovered bright reflective areas that may have appeared after his birth.

“Our analysis shows that this bright material has not changed significantly since Vesta formed more than 4 billion years ago,” said Jian-Yang Li.

Vesta's south pole has a huge mountain that reaches an altitude of over 20 kilometers (65,000 feet), making it almost as tall as Olympus Mons on Mars. Olympus is the largest mountain (and volcano) in the solar system. It rises 24 kilometers (15 miles) above the surface of Mars.

In addition, astronomers believe that liquid water existed on the asteroid. Images taken by the Dawn spacecraft captured curved gullies and fan-shaped deposits in eight different craters on Vesta. All eight craters are believed to have formed in the last few hundred million years, which is relatively recent for a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid.

“No one expected to find evidence of water on Vesta because its surface is so cold and it has no atmosphere, causing any water on its surface to evaporate quickly,” Jennifer Scully, a graduate student at Vesta, said in a statement. University of Los Angeles.

Dawn also found evidence of hydrated minerals (materials containing water molecules) on Vesta's surface, which could also hint at the presence of subsurface ice.

Asteroid Vesta is a celestial wanderer that has survived more than one large-scale disaster, leaving us with many interesting space artifacts.

Vesta became number 4 in order of discovery in the main asteroid belt. It was noticed by the German astronomer Heinrich Olbers in 1807. It owes its name to the greatest mathematician Carl Gauss; it was he who proposed naming the found asteroid after the patroness of family and hearth from Ancient Rome.

Location and characteristics

Vesta is located in a wide asteroid belt located between Jupiter and Mars. It is filled with cosmic bodies of various sizes and a significant number of small planets.

Asteroid Vesta is the second largest among its neighbors (530 km), it is second to Pallas at only 2 km in diameter. But in terms of mass, it overtook everyone - 2.59x10 in 20 kg - this figure became the largest among similar objects, after Ceres was classified as a dwarf planet. Temperatures on the asteroid vary seasonally: in winter this figure is about -190 degrees, and in summer - 3 degrees below 0. The eastern region is highly reflective, and in the western part there are darker areas of basalt rocks.

Surface and subsurface

Topographic map of the asteroid Vesta, showing the relief of the northern and southern hemispheres. Compiled from photographs acquired between July 17, 2011 and August 26, 2012 by NASA's DAWN spacecraft.

At the beginning of its formation, Vesta had an iron core and a rocky mantle, which were partially melted by internal heat. Over time, cooling occurred and a large amount of minerals appeared. This fact is confirmed by meteorites found on Earth that left the asteroid after powerful impacts. The surface of Vesta was subjected to several large-scale attacks, leaving behind craters hundreds of kilometers long. Their consequences are being studied using the Hubble telescope and the Dawn spacecraft.

The largest crater is located in the southern part, its size is 460 km, and the rock formation along the perimeter rises 18 km. This rock was pushed out by an impact of colossal force, its height is twice that of Everest.

The huge crater, like all the others on the asteroid, is named after the famous Roman matron, it bears the name Rhea Silvia. Many other, smaller craters were also discovered here. Another structure on the surface indicates catastrophic impacts - a system of trenches at the equator. The longest is called Divaliya, it has a length of 465 km and a depth of up to 5 km.

3D map of Vesta

Remnants of the disaster

The shape of the asteroid is close to spherical, since its uniformity was disrupted by a powerful collision with another celestial body more than 2 billion years ago. The fragments of Vesta left its surface and formed a family of class V asteroids. Their sizes are significantly smaller than the size of the main object and do not exceed 10 km in diameter. Scientists have calculated the number of these cosmic bodies; in 2005 it was 6051. Some meteorites circle in the space of the Universe, and those that fell on Earth brought important information about their ancestor Vesta.

Digital model of the Vesta asteroid

This is interesting

High reflective data made the asteroid one of the brightest celestial bodies. Vesta is visible to us without optical zoom. The asteroid is the same age as the Solar System, and in geological composition it is close to the terrestrial planets. Studies by the Dawn space probe, which took place in 2011-2012, provided many images of the surface and made it possible to create it detailed map. Only after the device approached the asteroid were scientists able to calculate its exact mass.

The second largest and brightest object in the main asteroid belt is called Vesta. If not for a powerful collision in ancient times, Vesta would have been classified as a dwarf planet.
History of discovery

As with the discovery of all main belt asteroids, the story of the discovery of Vesta began with the search for a missing planet in orbit between Mars and Jupiter (which can be found in more detail in the main belt asteroids article). Vesta was first discovered by German astronomer Heinrich Olbers in 1807. With the permission of Olbers, the name of the new object in the Solar System was given by another German astronomer of that time - Carl Gauss. He chose the name Vesta, in honor of the ancient Roman goddess of home and hearth.
Asteroid characteristics
The generally accepted designation of asteroids assumes that the name of the object is preceded by its serial number, in the order of discovery of asteroids. Vesta was the fourth discovered object in the main belt, therefore its designation is (4) Vesta. Vesta is the most massive asteroid in the main asteroid belt, accounting for 9% of the mass of the entire Main Belt. But Vesta is inferior in size to (2) Pallas and the dwarf planet Ceres. The diameter of the asteroid is 560 km. At the same time, Vesta is the brightest object in the main asteroid belt, even brighter than Ceres, whose diameter is almost 2 times that of Vesta. The asteroid's surface is covered with basaltic rocks similar to those that erupt from volcanoes on Earth. Such rocks are more reflective than the carbonaceous minerals that cover Ceres. Therefore, Vesta is brighter than Ceres and other main belt asteroids. Despite its small size, Vesta can be observed even with the naked eye on a dark night far from artificial lighting.
Vesta's orbit lies in the inner region of the main asteroid belt. The average distance from the Sun is 2.4 astronomical units. One revolution around the Sun takes 3.6 Earth years, and one revolution around its axis takes 5 hours 20 minutes. The temperature on the asteroid's surface ranges from -190°C to winter period and can rise to -3° C in the summer.
Vesta's shape is close to spherical and would have been so if two powerful collisions with other asteroids had not occurred. It is believed that Vesta experienced its first impact approximately 2 billion years ago. The crater formed by this impact is called Veneneia. Its diameter is about 400 km. A little less than a billion years later, Vesta experienced another, more powerful collision. The consequence was the impact crater Resilvia, with a diameter slightly less than the diameter of the asteroid itself - 500 km. The depth of the crater is 19 km, and in the center there is a peak 23 km high from the base of the crater. The impact was so strong that grooves were formed on the equator of the asteroid due to compression of the rock. Their length is 465 km, and the average width is about 10 km; their depth can reach 5 km. (In the video below.)
So, if not for the impact craters that disfigured appearance asteroid, today Vesta would be classified as a dwarf planet.
Vesta's collision with another asteroid allowed scientists to study Vesta's internal composition before the Dawn spacecraft entered orbit in 2011. The fact is that the impact threw a large amount of debris into outer space. It is estimated that Vesta has lost about 1% of its volume. These debris subsequently fell on other bodies in the solar system and on Earth in the form of meteorites. Studying the chemical composition of these meteorites allowed scientists to assume that Vesta is a protoplanet (the embryo of a planet). Its internal chemical composition is similar to that of Earth.
Young Vesta had a sufficient amount of internal heat; its depths were melted as a result of the decay of heavy radioactive elements. In addition, a process of internal differentiation took place, when heavy elements move to the center of the celestial body, and lighter ones are forced out closer to the surface. The molten core of the young asteroid and further differentiation of the interior allow us to speak specifically about the planetary structure of Vesta.
Throughout the history of the Solar System, asteroids with metallic cores have been destined to be destroyed by collisions with other objects. As a result, many smaller bodies were formed. And only Vesta was lucky enough to survive to this day in almost its original form. Thus, Vesta is the only representative of the protoplanets that has survived to this day, from which such planets as Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury were subsequently formed. Vesta is an excellent object for studying the processes that took place in the protoplanets of the young Solar System.

A computer model made on the basis of images obtained from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. On video:
1. Divaliya furrows formed as a result of a collision with another cosmic body.
2. Marcia Crater, the largest crater in the “snowman” series of craters, diameter 58 km.
3. Dome of Aricia, 5 km high and 39 km in diameter.

P.S. New cosmic oddities were discovered by the tireless seeker of alien artifacts Joseph P. Skipper, Investigator. He and his numerous colleagues - virtual archaeologists - are looking for unusual objects, examining in detail photographs from other planets and other celestial bodies posted on official websites. And they find it.
This time, the attention of “archaeologists” was attracted by the asteroid Vesta - the second largest in the solar system. Its diameter is 550 kilometers. Almost a planet.
Vesta is located between Mars and Jupiter - in the asteroid belt. And according to one of the very popular hypotheses, this belt represents the remains of the collapsed planet Phaeton. And on it - this is another hypothesis - there was once life on it. Perhaps even reasonable. That is, with local residents who have reached high level development. It seems that Skipper and his colleagues have found confirmation of this fantasy. They spotted the remains of two technical objects on Vesta.

The American automatic probe Dawn is now located near the asteroid, which approached it on December 12, 2011. The probe transmits high-resolution images to Earth. NASA posts them on its official website (NASA Photojournal).

So, in one of the photographs we were able to see a disk partially hidden under a layer of soil. And partially destroyed. The object is very similar to a "flying saucer" that crashed. In our minds, of course, about “flying saucers”.