The Dawn spacecraft's initial survey of the giant asteroid Vesta has been nothing short of a 'space spectacular' since achieving orbit on 16 July 2011. The probe has unveiled Vesta to be a marvellously intriguing body unlike any other in our solar system. "We do not have a good analog to Vesta anywhere else in the solar system," said Chris Russell in an interview for Spaceflight. Russell, from UCLA, is the scientific principal investigator for Dawn. "Vesta is the smallest terrestrial planet in our solar system and we'll be studying it very intently," he says. "The latest imagery provides much justification for our expectations. They show that a variety of processes were once at work on the surface of Vesta and provide extensive evidence for Vesta's planetary aspirations."
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