© Ben Zellner (Georgia Southern University) / Peter Thomas (Cornell University) / NASAOn its southern side the asteroid Vesta shows a huge crater. This picture shows the asteroid in an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (top, left), as a reconstruction based on theoretical calculations (top, right), and as a topological map (bottom).
The asteroid, called 1999 AT10, is a miniature space rock born when a collision blasted it out of its rocky parent Vesta, which is the second-largest asteroid in the solar system. The mineralogical composition of 1999 AT10 suggests that unlike many other asteroids, it did not originate from the outer rocky crust of its parent asteroid Vesta, but from the deeper layers underneath. Until now, no asteroid like it has ever been seen.
Vesta is of particular interest because this summer it will be the first destination of NASA's Dawn spacecraft.
The discovery of 1999 AT10could help determine the thickness of Vesta's crust, and reveal details about its internal structure, scientists say. With a body approximately 326 miles (525 kilometers) wide, Vesta is believed to be the only remaining protoplanet from the early phase of our solar system.
