The Dawn space probe is moving away from asteroid Vesta giant but the study data on this celestial body will continue for much longer. Recently, scientists have focused on huge troughs that reach across Vesta suggest that this is more than just an asteroid.

In recent months clues were already found that suggested that Vesta is actually a protoplanet that remained so small because of Jupiter’s gravitational perturbations. Now the research on the troughs across Vesta could confirm that this asteroid has a complex internal structure like planets and bigger moons.

Generally, asteroids have simple craters and cracks caused by impacts, instead Vesta has a series of troughs, the largest of which, called Divalia Fossa, has a size greater than the Grand Canyon on the Earth being about 465 kilometers (289 miles) long, is 22 km (13.6 miles) wide and is about 5 km (3 miles) deep.

The pictures taken by the Dawn spacecraft have allowed scientists to study those troughs and suggest that they were created following a large collision. Something like that, however, is possible only if Vesta has a core, a mantle and a crust with different densities, just like planets. These layers react differently to the forces of an impact causing the surface to slide and the soil to collapse.

[ad name=”Google Adsense 300″]

Not all scientists are convinced of this theory. Some have proposed a different hypothesis, based on the huge impact that flattened Vesta south pole determining its peculiar shape. According to this other hypotheses, the violence of the impact modified the Vesta’s rotation speed so quickly that it led to the formation of those troughs.

It’s also possible that both hypotheses are true and an impact had a direct but also an indirect influence in the creation of the troughs. The scientists will keep on studying the data obtained by the space probe Dawn and will create simulations of the giant asteroid Vesta to try to understand how those troughs really formed.

The many impacts suffered by Vesta are perhaps responsible for the presence of hydrogen in quantities, another of the discoveries made by the space probe Dawn through its Visual and infrared spectrometer (VIR) instrument. This discovery is surprising because Vesta is in a position in which the heat  from the Sun is supposed to be enough to prevent the deposition of volatile compounds containing hydrogen.

Probably, the hydrogen compounds were brought during the first phase of Vesta’s life. If this is confirmed, it will provide more precise information also about how water came to the Earth.