When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. For decades, scientists thought that Vesta was a protoplanet rather than an asteroid. NASA's Dawn ...

On Friday, May 2 the asteroid Vesta will reach opposition, marking the ideal period to spot the second largest asteroid orbiting in the rocky belt of debris located between Mars and Jupiter. A solar ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. – For decades, scientists believed Vesta, one of the largest objects in our solar system’s asteroid belt, wasn’t just an asteroid. They concluded that Vesta has a crust, mantle and ...

A robotic probe currently studying the giant asteroid Vesta is going into bonus rounds in the asteroid belt, with NASA clearing the spacecraft to spend 40 extra days gleaning more of the space rock's ...

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) currently recognizes five dwarf planets in our solar system, though there are likely many more. The most famous of the bunch is Pluto, way out beyond the ...

If you were to ask a group of dedicated amateur astronomers to list their favorite telescopic targets, few if any would mention asteroids. That's easy to understand. The typical asteroid lacks the jaw ...

Asteroid 4 Vesta is stationary at 3 P.M. EDT. Now located in the constellation Virgo, Vesta is mid-6th-magnitude — easy to find in just a few minutes from any location using binoculars or a small ...

Analyzing gravity data collected by spacecraft orbiting other worlds reveals groundbreaking insights about planetary structures without having to land on the surface. Although the moon and the ...

We’ve all seen this happen in a science-fiction movie: our plucky heroes jump into their ramshackle spaceship and escape the bad guys by flying through the treacherous asteroid belt, where huge rocks ...

Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter lies a ring-shaped region called the asteroid belt, home to the vast majority of our solar system’s space rocks. The asteroid belt is as old as the solar system ...

As suspected, Vesta is no mere asteroid. It is a protoplanet, a remnant of the early days of our solar system that never grew up because Jupiter kept stealing all its potential mass. A 10-month study ...