Could giant asteroid Vesta actually be a planet?

For geezerhood , scientist have been calling Vesta an asteroid . Granted , it ’s a big asteroid — at 330 miles across , it ’s the second full-grown in the solar system — but NASA ’s Dawn space vehicle recently sustain its closest look at Vesta yet , and fit in to Dawn ’s principle police detective Christopher Russel , astronomer have been finding it heavily not to bring up to the asteroid as a major planet .

Of of course , the odds of the International Astronomical Union convening to name Vesta a satellite ( the same direction they met in 2006 to reclassify Pluto as a nanus planet ) are essentially zero . So rather , astronomers have taken to describing the monumental asteroid as “ transitional . ” But what ’s with all the confusion in the first shoes ?

Long story short : Vesta resembles a planet . And not just any planet ; Vesta is home to a quite a little of feature typically associated with mundane bodies like Earth . The ratio between its topography ( the elevation of its various aerofoil characteristics ) relative to its spoke , for instance , is more like a rough planet ’s than an asteroid ’s .

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It also harbors something called impingement melt , the end of at least one collision event so powerful , it really flux portions of Vesta ’s surface — something never observed on an asteroid before . Researchers guess that this impact melt , which would have course pronto across Vesta ’s face following an extraterrestrial hit , may explain why they ’ve found no evidence of volcanic activity in the form of lava rate of flow . Scientists are positive that Vesta ’s past was characterized by tenacious periods of volcanism , but it ’s potential that any sign of volcanic activity has been hide by hit and wallop melt .

“ [ It ’s ] because of all the encroachment processing over Solar System history , ” excuse Arizona State ’s Dave Williams toBBC News . “ It has destroyed all the grounds . ”

The Dawn space vehicle is scheduled to continue orbiting Vesta until July of this year , when it will prepare a course for Ceres , the largest asteroid in the Solar System . Ceres is importantly larger than Vesta ; at close to 600 mile in diam , it actually qualify as the modest of the dwarf planet . It ’ll be very interesting to see if its surface features are as stereotypically “ planet - like ” as Vesta ’s .

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