Vesta

Vesta — asteroid, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.

The brightest asteroid in our sky and nearly a protoplanet: it has an iron core, a basaltic crust, and a south-pole impact basin so deep that debris from it still lands on Earth as meteorites.

Radius
263 km (mean)
Discovered
1807
Year
3.63 Earth years
Day
5 h 21 m
Visited
Dawn orbiter, 2011–2012
Feature
Rheasilvia basin, 505 km wide

Seeing Vesta in real time

Cosmoscope puts Vesta at its true position in the solar system, computed from JPL-derived ephemeris and updated continuously. Open the live 3D view to see, in real time, how far Vesta is from the Sun and from Earth right now, how many minutes or hours light takes to cross that gap, and how fast it is moving along its orbit. Scrub the timeline to place Vesta where it was on any past date, or where it will be years from now.

Interactive universe A living map of the solar system
Interactive universe
Waking the solar system…