Post by Floyd Looney on Aug 2, 2011 17:21:51 GMT -5
.LOS ANGELES (AP) — The first close-up pictures of the massive asteroid Vesta reveal a northern hemisphere littered with craters — including a trio nicknamed "Snowman" — and a smoother southern half, researchers reported Monday.
Running along the asteroid's equator are deep grooves — a surprise to scientists who did not expect to see such features.
"We're seeing quite a varied surface," said chief scientist Christopher Russell of the University of California, Los Angeles. The images were taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which began orbiting the 330-mile-wide rocky body last month and beaming back incredible surface details that the team is only beginning to pore over. It's the first time that Vesta has been viewed up close. Until now, it has only been photographed from afar.
Since entering orbit, Dawn has taken more than 500 pictures, while refining its path and inching ever closer to the surface to get a better view. The probe will officially start collecting science data next week once it is 1,700 miles from the surface. It will get as close as 110 miles while it orbits Vesta for a year.
Vesta's southern section is dominated by a giant crater, the result of a collision eons ago that's believed to have pelted Earth with numerous meteorites, or broken off pieces of asteroids. The northern side is filled with older craters including three that scientists dubbed "Snowman."
Vesta is "so rich in features" that it will keep scientists busy for years, said Holger Sierks, of the Max Planck Society in Germany, who helps operate the camera.
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117 million miles from Earth, hhmmmm
Last Edit: Aug 2, 2011 17:23:37 GMT -5 by Floyd Looney
If you know the density it is easy to calculate (the density of the object divided by earth multiplied by the object's radius). Unfortunately, Vesta's density is unknown.
Post by Attero Dominatus on Aug 4, 2011 17:33:36 GMT -5
It would be a great place to colonize. Its rotation could be used for artificial gravity by making the interior facilities ring shaped. Its rotation could be used for launch assist by attaching tethers to the asteroid and space docks to the other ends of the tethers.
Post by Floyd Looney on Aug 4, 2011 18:09:58 GMT -5
We'd be walking around in there upside down. lol. There could be a lot of space in there and unlike some scifi stories the dust would not be that much of a problem because we'd make the surface of the interior glassy. I wonder how long future laser cutters would take?
Post by Floyd Looney on Aug 4, 2011 18:21:39 GMT -5
The diameter is about 330 miles. Plenty big enough to colonize. Its in the main belt not the Kuiper belt which is probably too dark and cold for us right now.
Ceres is bigger of course, being a dwarf planet about 590 miles across. its equitorial surface gravity is 0.028g's? lol. Escape velocity is about .51km per second. Not much.
We'd be walking around in there upside down. lol. There could be a lot of space in there and unlike some scifi stories the dust would not be that much of a problem because we'd make the surface of the interior glassy. I wonder how long future laser cutters would take?
We'd be walking around in there upside down. lol. There could be a lot of space in there and unlike some scifi stories the dust would not be that much of a problem because we'd make the surface of the interior glassy. I wonder how long future laser cutters would take?
lol the beauty of space is that direction does not matter as much. You could have side ways rooms, upside down rooms, angled rooms, anything. The one exception is a space ship where you will want the floors to be perpendicular to the axis of thrust (so that 'up' is in the thrust direction; think of a skycraper with rockets attached to the bottom).
Using laser cutters to cut through an asteroid could be done but a lot of power would be needed and it would have to be remote controlled. The laser would vaporize the rock and the tunnel would be flooded with a super-heated gas. You can get around this problem by using an x-ray laser to melt the rock and then pump it out to a refinery to extract metals.
The diameter is about 330 miles. Plenty big enough to colonize. Its in the main belt not the Kuiper belt which is probably too dark and cold for us right now.
Ceres is bigger of course, being a dwarf planet about 590 miles across. its equitorial surface gravity is 0.028g's? lol. Escape velocity is about .51km per second. Not much.
Vesta would be good for a space ship yard while Ceres would be good for habitation.
The asteroid belt is a good location because it is close enough to the sun for newer solar panels and solar heaters. Colonizing the Kuiper Belt would absolutely require nuclear power.