When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An image of Vesta captured as NASA's Dawn spacecraft retreated ...

On March 29, 1807, the German astronomer Heinrich Olbers discovered the asteroid Vesta. Vesta is the second-largest body in the asteroid belt and is surpassed in size only by the dwarf planet Ceres.

A robotic probe currently studying the giant asteroid Vesta is going into bonus rounds in the asteroid belt, with NASA clearing the spacecraft to spend 40 extra days gleaning more of the space rock's ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. On a large asteroid named Vesta, mysteriously curved gullies and fan-shaped deposits may have ...

For years, astronomers treated Vesta as more than just an asteroid. With its rocky surface, distinct layers, and volcanic history, it seemed to be a miniature version of Earth—something between a rock ...

Asteroid Vesta is currently the second largest asteroid in the solar system, having been studied in-depth by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft between July 2011 and September 2012. But a recent study published ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. – For decades, scientists believed Vesta, one of the largest objects in our solar system’s asteroid belt, wasn’t just an asteroid. They concluded that Vesta has a crust, mantle and ...

This big asteroid, called Vesta, doesn’t look THAT scary. Then again, it’s 300,000 miles away from the camera. I’m sure it’d look a whole lot scarier from, say, 30,000 miles away. And 3,000 miles away ...

Asteroids always get left out of the party. Send a spacecraft to Jupiter or Saturn or one of the solar system’s other glamor spots and the press will be all over you. But asteroids? Not so much.

A signal from the probe confirming that it had escaped the gravitational bounds of the 530km-wide rock was received by Nasa on Wednesday. The spacecraft's ion engine is now pushing it on to an even ...