Up-close observations of the giant asteroid Vesta by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft have confirmed and provided new insights into more than 200 years of Earth-based observations, according to research led by Planetary Science Institute Research Scientist Vishnu Reddy. Reddy is an associate on the Dawn framing camera team located at Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.

“Since the vast majority of asteroids can only be studied remotely by ground-based and space-based facilities, confirming the accuracy of such observations is important to our exploration of the broader Solar System,” Reddy said.

Vesta is the second most massive asteroid in the main asteroid belt and has a crust, mantle and core like our Earth. It has been studied intensely by Earth and space based telescopes since its discovery in 1807.

Early ground-based observations showed that Vesta’s color and surface composition changed as it rotated around its axis. Observations made using the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) by astronomers showed distinct compositional units. Dawn’s observations have confirmed these rotational color variations and the presence of compositional units.

“A generation of scientific questions based on lower resolution data have been resolved by visiting Vesta,” the Dawn mission’s principal investigator Christopher Russell said.

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers not only saw the giant impact basin in the southern hemisphere of Vesta for the first time, but also identified numerous bright and dark features on Vesta that correspond to different compositional units. Maps created using high-resolution images from Dawn’s framing camera confirmed the presence of these features.

“It is an amazing feeling to realize how accurately and how much detail Hubble tells us about Vesta when Dawn got there,” said PSI Research Scientist Jian-Yang Li, Dawn Participating Scientist who mapped the surface of Vesta using Hubble data.

“Prior to Dawn’s arrival at Vesta, we observed it with the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility for several years and made predictions as to what one should expect. It is rewarding to see that a lot of these precursor studies were right,” said PSI Research Scientist Lucille Le Corre, a key member of the Dawn framing camera team.

The findings are reported in an Icarus paper titled “Comparing Dawn, Hubble Space Telescope, and ground-based Interpretations of (4) Vesta.” PSI Senior Scientist Robert Gaskell is a paper co-author.

Visit http://www.psi.edu/news/dawnhubblevestacomparison.html to see Vesta image comparisons.

The Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta for more than a year, departing in September 2012. Dawn is now on its way to the dwarf planet Ceres, and will arrive there in early 2015.

The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of California, Los Angeles, is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing cameras were developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The framing camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR and NASA.

CONTACT:
Vishnu Reddy
Research Scientist
808-342-8932
reddy@psi.edu

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Director
520-622-6300
sykes@psi.edu

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