4 Vesta

asteroid · space · solar system

Huge and bright. Vesta is one of the largest asteroids, with a diameter of about 525 kilometers. It's so bright that sometimes you can see it from Earth without a telescope, making it the brightest asteroid in the night sky.

Discovered in 1807. A German astronomer named Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Vesta on March 29, 1807. It was named after Vesta, the Roman goddess who protected homes and families.

Asteroid belt resident. Vesta orbits the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, where thousands of rocky objects dance through space.

Giant impact scar. Vesta has a massive crater near its south pole created by a huge impact billions of years ago. This ancient crash was so powerful it blasted material into space that scientists can study today.

NASA visited!. In 2011, NASA's spacecraft Dawn visited Vesta and took amazing close-up photos and measurements that taught us incredible things about this ancient asteroid.