NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around Asteroid Vesta

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around Asteroid Vesta "NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Saturday became the first probe ever to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn will study the asteroid, named Vesta, for a year before departing for a second destination, a dwarf planet named Ceres, in July 2012. Observations will provide unprecedented data to help scientists understand the earliest chapter of our solar system. The data also will help pave the way for future human space missions."

Here's a photo it took of Vespa a week ago at a distance of 26,000 miles. It's about 330 miles across. Wikipedia says, "Comprising an estimated 9% of the mass of the entire asteroid belt,[10] it is the second-most-massive object in the belt after the dwarf planet Ceres."