A new video from NASA shows Vesta’s true colours. Vesta, according to data gathered by the Dawn mission, used to be an ancient planet; had it formed nearer to the Sun, it might have been a rocky planet such as Venus.
Vesta was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on March 1807. It is considered the second largest asteroid of the asteroid belt, and revolves around the Sun once in 3.63 years.
Dawn captured these images in September and October 2011. The colour enhancement shows the different elements that can be found on Vesta’s surface — green, for example, highlights the amount of iron. The spacecraft’s next mission is Ceres, the largest known asteroid in the Solar System.
