Vesta (minor-planet designation: 4 Vesta) is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of 525 kilometres (326 mi). It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after Vesta, the virgin goddess of home and hearth from Roman mythology. Vesta is thought to be the second-largest asteroid, both by mass and by volume, after the dwarf planet Ceres. Measurements give it a nominal volume only slightly larger than that of Pallas (about 5% greater), but it is 25% to 30% more massive.
Facts
Diameter (km) Orbital Distance Discovery Year Connections
Orbits
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Additional Source Wikipedia: 4 Vestaen.wikipedia.org, 4 Vesta, infobox
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1. Wikipedia: 4 Vesta
en.wikipedia.org, 4 Vesta, lead section
Vesta is the only known remaining rocky protoplanet of the kind that formed the terrestrial planets.
- en.wikipedia.org, 4 Vesta, infobox
In Group: Main-Belt Asteroids, Lead sentence
Vesta (minor-planet designation: 4 Vesta) is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of 525 kilometres (326 mi).
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Wikimedia FoundationEntity description, vesta catalogue classificationQuote, Entity description, vesta catalogue classification
Vesta is the second-largest body in the main asteroid belt and the only known surviving rocky protoplanet of the kind that formed the terrestrial planets, its differentiated interior and two massive southern-hemisphere impact basins mapped by NASA's Dawn mission.
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