Celestial Objects

Vesta

Asteroid

Citation Formats

General Reference

Space and Astronomy Atlas. "Vesta." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://space.interactiveatlas.org/celestial-objects/vesta.

APA Style

Space and Astronomy Atlas. (n.d.). Vesta. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://space.interactiveatlas.org/celestial-objects/vesta

BibTeX

@misc{spaceandastronomyatlas-vesta,
  author = {Space and Astronomy Atlas},
  title = {Vesta},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://space.interactiveatlas.org/celestial-objects/vesta},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

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.

Facts

Object Type

Asteroid 1

Diameter (km)

525.4 1

Orbital Distance

2.36 AU from the Sun 1

Discovery Year

1807 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Orbits

Sun

Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)

Sources

1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)

Wikimedia Foundationen.wikipedia.org, 4 Vesta, lead section

Quote, en.wikipedia.org, 4 Vesta, lead section

Vesta is the only known remaining rocky protoplanet of the kind that formed the terrestrial planets.

1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)

Wikimedia Foundationen.wikipedia.org, 4 Vesta, infobox

Comments (0)

No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.

Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)

No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.

Switch Atlas

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World