Cool Video: Dawn Flies Around Vesta   
       
   Sept. 16, 2011: A new video from NASA's Dawn spacecraft takes us on a flyover   
   above the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta.   
       
   The data obtained by Dawn's framing camera will help scientists determine the   
   processes that formed Vesta's striking features. It will also help Dawn   
   mission fans all over the world visualize this mysterious world, which is the   
   second most massive object in the main asteroid belt. Click to play.   
       
   http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1020   
       
   The voice of Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal investigator, narrates this   
   unique fly-around of the giant asteroid. [video]   
   You'll notice in the video that Vesta is not entirely lit up. There is no   
   light in the high northern latitudes because, like Earth, Vesta has seasons.   
   Currently it is northern winter on Vesta, and the northern polar region is in   
   perpetual darkness. When we view Vesta's rotation from above the south pole,   
   half is in darkness simply because half of Vesta is in daylight and half is in   
   the darkness of night .   
       
   Another distinct feature seen in the video is a massive circular structure in   
   the south pole region. Scientists were particularly eager to see this area   
   close-up, since NASA's Hubble Space Telescope first detected it years ago. The   
   circular structure, or depression, is several hundreds of miles, or   
   kilometers, wide, with cliffs that are also several miles high. One impressive   
   mountain in the center of the depression rises approximately 9 miles (15   
   kilometers) above the base of this depression, making it one of the highest   
   elevations on all known bodies with solid surfaces in the solar system.   
       
   The collection of images, obtained when Dawn was about 1,700 miles (2,700   
   kilometers) above Vesta's surface, was used to determine its rotational axis   
   and a system of latitude and longitude coordinates. One of the first tasks   
   tackled by the Dawn science team was to determine the precise orientation of   
   Vesta's rotation axis relative to the celestial sphere.   
       
   The zero-longitude, or prime meridian, of Vesta was defined by the science   
   team using a tiny crater about 1,640 feet (500 meters) in diameter, which they   
   named "Claudia," after a Roman woman during the second century B.C. Dawn's   
   craters will be named after the vestal virgins-the priestesses of the goddess   
   Vesta, and famous Roman women, while other features will be named for   
   festivals and towns of that era.   
       
   Stay tuned for more.   
       
       
   Production Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA   
       
   More Information   
       
   For more information about Dawn, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn and   
   http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .   
       
   You can also follow the mission on Twitter at: http://www.twitte   
   .com/NASA_Dawn .   
       
   Credits: 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. Dawn is a   
   project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall   
   Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn   
   mission science. Other scientific partners include Planetary Science   
   Institute, Tucson, Ariz.; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research,   
   Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany; DLR Institute for Planetary Research, Berlin,   
   Germany; Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, Rome; and the Italian   
   Space Agency, Rome. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., designed and   
   built the Dawn spacecraft.   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.64   
    * Origin: NCS BBS (1:3828/7)