Does Water Ice Lurk Beneath the Poles of Vesta ?
Posted by brandoniswrite on January 27, 2012
View of the South Pole of Vesta and Rheasilvia Impact Basin – Does Water Ice Lurk Beneath ?
This image obtained by Dawn’s framing camera shows the south pole of the giant asteroid Vesta and the circular Rheasilvia impact basin which scientists believe originated by a collision with another asteroid early in the asteroid's history. The image was recorded from a distance of about 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers). The image resolution is about 260 meters per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
The mysterious asteroid Vesta may well have more surprises in store. Despite past observations that Vesta would be nearly bone dry, newly published research indicates that about half of the giant asteroid is sufficiently cold and dark enough that water ice could theoretically exist below the battered surface.
Scientists working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the University of Maryland have derived the first models of Vesta’s average global temperatures and illumination by the Sun based on data obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope. (…)
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© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1 Ceres, 4 vesta, Dawn Asteroid Orbiter, Dawn mission, ion propulsion, Jupiter, Main Asteroid Belt, Mars
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Tags: Beneath, Lurk, poles, Vesta, Water
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