Impact Excavation on Asteroid 4 Vesta: Hubble Space Telescope Results

Hubble Space Telescope images of asteroid 4 Vesta obtained during the favorable 1996 apparition show an impact crater 460 kilometers in diameter near the south pole. Color measurements within the 13-kilometer-deep crater are consistent with excavation deep into a high-calcium pyroxene-rich crust or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Thomas, Peter C., Binzel, Richard P., Gaffey, Michael J., Storrs, Alex D., Wells, Eddie N., Zellner, Benjamin H.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1997
Subjects:
Multidisciplinary
South pole
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.277.5331.1492
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.277.5331.1492
Description
Summary:Hubble Space Telescope images of asteroid 4 Vesta obtained during the favorable 1996 apparition show an impact crater 460 kilometers in diameter near the south pole. Color measurements within the 13-kilometer-deep crater are consistent with excavation deep into a high-calcium pyroxene-rich crust or olivine upper mantle. About 1 percent of Vesta was excavated by the crater formation event, a volume sufficient to account for the family of small Vesta-like asteroids that extends to dynamical source regions for meteorites. This crater may be the site of origin for the howardite, eucrite, and diogenite classes of basaltic achondrite meteorites.

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