Saturday, February 23, 2008

Ceres and Vesta Through the Hubble Space Telescope


Ceres and Vesta are two of the most popular bodies in the solar system – and they are also the two of the largest asteroids. Unfortunately, clear photographs of these heavenly bodies are difficult to produce, until recently by the Hubble Telescope.

The pictures of the two asteroids using the Wide Field Planetary Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope are needed for the long term observation mission by Dawn Robotic Space Craft. This is the first time that a close observation of the two asteroids will be done in one mission.

Ceres, the larger asteroid was previously thought of as a planet. Now it is labeled a dwarf planet according to the International Astronomical Union.

Vesta on the other hand, is more irregular in shape and has a prominent crater feature on its South atmosphere.

Early images of the two from astronomical telescopes showed multitude of colors, suggesting volcanic activities on the surface.

Better photographic results from Hubble Telescope

With the larger, clearer photographs of Ceres and Vesta by the Hubble Space Telescope, with results a thousand times better than any other land based astronomy telescope, more significant information on the asteroids will be discovered and certainly will be considered a major link to the creation of our solar system.