AMAZING VESTA
Years back in 1998 hollywood science fiction movie ‘Armageddon’ was released. It was about a giant asteroid in space which was in collision
course with our planet Earth. In the movie the crew of astronauts and Oil drillers planted nuclear warheads on the impending asteroid and blew it! The space mission NASA has announced recently, its space mission,
about landing its astronauts on asteroid VESTA before 2030. The findings from NASA are reported in the Science Magazine.
Since its formation,4.5 billion years ago, Earth
has been hit many times with asteroids and
comets whose orbits brings them into the inner
solar system. These objects collectively known
as Near Earth Objects (NEOs) still pose danger
to Earth today. Massive damage can occur by
their collisions. We have come to know that
Dinosaurs were wiped out; they became extinct
due to such collision. Their fossils are the record
of their existence on earth.
In1994 the comet Shoemaker-Levy broke in fragments and crashed into the atmosphere of planet Jupiter.
If these fragments had hit Earth instead, we would have suffered global catastrophe!
Most of the asteroids and comets pose no danger to our planet. But in Every thousand or so of those objects, there is one with an orbit which crosses that of the Earth raising possibility of future collision.
NASA is planning to send humans further than they have ever been before. It would take astronauts far beyond the current limit of human endeavour-the moon which is about 385,000km from Earth,
One of the astronauts is Maj. Tim Peake, a former British Army Helicopter Test pilot- an astronaut with European Space Agency. Peake and five other Astronauts will be sent to an underwater base off the cost of Florida next month where they will spend 12 days 20 meters beneath the surface of the Atlantic to simulate working in the low gravity environment of an Asteroid.NASAs Extreme Environment Mission Operation(NEEMO): During the training the astronauts will stay in a capsule (12 meters by 6 meters) where they will live eat sleep as part of training.
Spacecraft Dawn was sent in space in the year 2007. Its circling VESTA since 2011. It has sent some 20,000 images and spectra data is collected from different wavelengths of radiations.
VESTA was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on 29th march 1807. It is named after the goddess of home and hearth from Roman Mythology.
Asteroid VESTA is the second largest in the asteroid belt between planet Mars and Jupiter. Its mean diameter is 525 kilometers (326 mi)
VESTA resembles a small planet. It is 4.5 billion year
old has a rare iron core and crust and mantle formation similar to the Earth. It is rich in metals and minerals like iron and magnesium.
VESTA has large mountains-the largest is more than twice the size of Mount Everest. The Crater centered near its south pole is 505 km in Diameter named as RheaSilvia.
Dr.Raymond of Dawn Mission says “ VESTA is special because it has survived the intense collisional environments of the asteroid belt- for billions of years, allowing us to interrogate a key witness to the events at the very beginning of the Solar System.”
By Prajakta Dighe.
My above article got published in The Hitavada dated 3/6/2012
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