Vesta Rotating
Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute (AURA/NASA/ESA)
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.