back to article First snap of giant asteroid Vesta from orbiting probe

NASA's Dawn asteroid hunter has returned the first photo of Vesta since achieving orbit around the giant object at the end of last week. The snap (big version here) was grabbed at a distance of 9,900 miles (16,000 kilometres), and shows Vesta's impressive 530 kilometre (330 mile) diameter bulk beginning to come into focus. …

COMMENTS

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  1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    Neat shot

    My scope only shows a speck, moving slowly between the stars

  2. James Micallef Silver badge
    Coat

    So did they find anything...

    marooned off Vesta?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Just an empty water tank

      Just an empty water tank.

      my coat: i 'as a mauve one.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    But...

    Where are the Clangers?

  4. Mike Bell
    Alien

    @Clangers

    Don't give up hope. According to the Dawn mission website, each pixel in that image corresponds to 0.88 miles. Dustbin lids are quite a bit smaller than that.

    1. Yet Another Commentard
      Alien

      @Clangers 2

      Also they were on a "small planet somewhere in space" IIRC. Clearly that was before Pluto was so shockingly demoted, so it (and Cares, if it's big enough) may be in with a chance, I don't think this one ever counted as a planet.

      As Mr Bell above said "don't give up hope"

      1. Christoph
        Alien

        The Clangers might find them first

        Maybe Small Clanger will come out in the music boat and reel in the Dawn probe with that fishing line and magnet.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That's

    no moon!

    1. Rattus Rattus

      It certainly isn't...

      ...it's an asteroid.

  6. Chris Glen-smith
    Paris Hilton

    Fuzzy

    Dissapointing, seems rather fuzzy.

    I wonder what the cammera the sensor size and focal length are (unless it's some sort of scanned sensor). By my calculation 16000km away 530km diameter should cover approx 1.9 deg which would roughly fill a 36mm frame with a 1000mm lens.

    Paris, another heavenly body! (so I'm told)

  7. Mike Bell
    Boffin

    @Fuzzy

    The resolution of the camera is actually not too brilliant (1024 x 1024). But I imagine those sneaky boffins know what they are up to. Things should get quite a lot sharper when the spacecraft gets much nearer to Vesta. And since it will be in orbit for quite a while, who knows, they may be able to artificially increase the resolution from multiple passes.

    http://www6.cet.edu/dawn/multimedia/docs/camera.pdf

    1. nyelvmark
      Boffin

      Close-ups?

      Isn't this close to the perfect snap? Surely, when the probe is at closest approach, it will send thousands of detailed pictures, each of 1 square km of surface, or something - doubtless invaluable to the scientists looking for evidence to support their pet theories of planetary evolution, but hardly the stuff that makes newspaper headlines.

      Unless, of course, they manage to snap somebody snapping them.

      Personally, I'm more interested in Phobos, with its interestingly low density which MIGHT just suggest that there are hollow spaces inside. It's time we investigated that.

  8. Blubster
    Coat

    Mayan prediction

    Is this the asteroid that will be responsible for destroying the Earth in 2012?

    May have been all right if some probe or other hadn't knocked it out of it's usual orbit.

  9. ravenviz Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Lovely stuff

    Vesta, then Ceres! Thank you people with money for sending us these pictures!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Vista/Vesta

    So...there's a large, bloated, boring, useless object floating around in the asteroid belt? That'll be me...I punted my copy of vista into space within 24hrs of using it.

    Oh wait...VEsta, not VIsta? aaaah.

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