NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope images of the asteroid Vesta are providing astronomers
with a glimpse of the oldest terrain ever seen in the solar system and a
peek into a broken off section of the "mini-planet" that exposes
its interior.
Vesta is the most geologically diverse of the large asteroids and the only
known one with distinctive light and dark areas - much like the face of
our Moon. Previous ground-based spectroscopy of Vesta indicates regions
that are basaltic, which means lava flows once occurred on its surface.
This is surprising evidence that the asteroid once had a molten interior,
like Earth does. |