JPL: Spacecraft Shoots Flyover Video of Asteroid

In a new video from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, viewers take a flyover journey that shows this asteroid up close and personal. A press release from referred to Vesta as "the second most massive object in the main asteroid belt.''

Dawn’s framing camera, which produced the visuals, will help scientists determine how the asteroid's features were formed, according to JPL, which is managing the Dawn mission to Vesta.  

In the video, viewers will see that only part of the asteroid is lit. Like Earth, Vesta has seasons. It is currently northern winter on Vesta, and the northern polar region is perpetually dark. Therefore, half of the asteroid is lit, and half is dark.

A massive circular structure in the south pole region of Vesta is another feature to check out.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope first detected it years ago, so scientists were eager to see it up close, the news release states. Called a depression, the circular structure is several hundreds of miles wide, with cliffs that are also several miles high. A mountain in the center of the circular structure rises roughly nine miles above the base - making it "one of the highest elevations on all known bodies with solid surfaces in the solar system.''

Dawn snapped the images when the spacecraft was about 1,700 miles above Vesta’s surface.

For more information about Dawn, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn  and http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .