May 18, 2012

Mineral distribution in the southern hemisphere of the giant asteroid Vesta (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/INAF/MPS/DLR/IDA)

The giant asteroid Vesta can be seen as a kind of fossil from the chaotic time of the early solar system. Without the presence of Jupiter, it could have kept on attracting more small asteroids and perhaps it would’ve merged with Ceres, the dwarf planet which is the largest object in the asteroid belt.