NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Takes Close-up Image of Vesta Asteroid

Posted on August 1, 2011

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this amazing image of the asteroid Vesta on July 24, 2011. The image was taken from a distance of about 3,200 miles. The three large craters on the northern hemisphere of Dawn have been nicknamed "Snowman" by NASA researchers.

Vesta is a 330-mile-wide asteroid being studied by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 15. It will spend one year orbiting the large asteroid. Dawn will move on to study the dwarf planet Ceres after it has finished with Dawn.

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