Vesta is currently in the distinctive constellation of Leo, the lion, and it will remain there over the next few weeks, making the asteroid simple to find. In mid-January, Vesta was shining at magnitude 7, making it a target for your binoculars. It also showed up easily in sky photos taken with a digital camera. Over the next few weeks, Vesta will brighten until it reaches a point called opposition, because it is on the opposite side of the sky to the Sun.
Vesta will be about two and a half times brighter, and shine at magnitude 5. This is theoretically just within the limits of naked-eye visibility, though you would need an exceptionally clear, dark sky to see it with just your eyes and no optical aid.
Vesta will lie at a distance of million km from Earth million miles when it is at opposition. Vesta is also known as 4 Vesta because it was the fourth asteroid to be discovered, in It is one of the larger of many thousands of asteroids , which are rocky objects circling the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
Vesta takes 3. Under normal circumstances, Vesta is the brightest of the asteroids, becoming brighter even than the largest of these bodies, Ceres , which is now classed as a dwarf planet.
It will be easy to find and see asteroid Vesta in the early months of because it will lie in the conspicuous zodiacal constellation of Leo. Our charts will help you see asteroid Vesta. They show the track across the sky that it will make between mid-January and late April, The current visual magnitude of Asteroid 4 Vesta is 7. The following chart is the predicted light curve visual magnitude as a function of time of Asteroid 4 Vesta, according to the most recent ephemerides data.
Magnitude data is sampled with a 2 days interval and there might be inaccuracies for objects changing brightness very rapidly during the course of a few days. For comets there could be large discrepancies between the observed and predicted brightness because of their highly dynamic behaviour. As the atmospheric conditions cannot be modeled precisely the times reported here should be considered correct with an approximation of few minutes.
This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of Asteroid 4 Vesta with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets. The position of Asteroid 4 Vesta and the planets along their orbits in this diagram accurately represents the current configuration of the objects in the Solar System.
This is an experimental feature and it requires a WebGL enabled browser. Please provide us feedback! The following shows the known values of the most important physical parameters of Asteroid 4 Vesta. The following table lists the ephemerides of Asteroid 4 Vesta computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate Asteroid 4 Vesta in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.
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Thank you! Dwarf Planets and Asteroids ». Constellation Libra. So tonight I viewed Mars, Pleiades cluster and 4 Vesta asteroid in our solar system. Thank you, Rod. And good report yourself! Another source of ephemerides by Meeus gives 6.
I was barely able to see it naked eye. I could hold it in view only for about a second, but I was able to do this several times maybe due to poor seeing here?
Many thanks for the challenge and the great article always love a Bob King piece! Hi Bob, thanks for your article! Thomas, Austria. Constant Contact Use. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact. The asteroid 4 Vesta and the Moon are shown to scale. Moon image: Gregory H. South is up. Piqui Diaz. Vesta's position is shown for March 4, , the date of opposition. Its orbit is inclined 7. JPL Horizons. Vesta's was 0.
He also noted the asteroid's gold color, describing it as "conspicuous. To find Leo so that you can navigate to Vesta, use the Big Dipper. Stellarium with additions by the author. Dates are shown for 0h UT. Click here for a high resolution map. Vesta is a heavily cratered asteroid shaped like a smooshed sphere or oblate spheroid. Its largest peak described below juts out from the south polar region at bottom.
This slice of the eucrite meteorite NWA , found in Northwest Africa in , was once part of a lava flow on the surface of Vesta. After the lava cooled, an enormous impact sprung it free and ultimately sent it to Earth.
Bob King. The solar system's tallest peak looks like a rocky blister at the center of the kilometer-wide Rheasilvia Crater on Vesta. Watch for Vesta to pass between these two galaxies but much closer to NGC on the evening of March 21st. Comments Anthony Barreiro March 3, at pm I don't understand how an asteroid km in diameter can have a km diameter crater. Log in to Reply You must be logged in to post a comment. Anthony Barreiro March 4, at pm Jacobus, yes, that's how I'm thinking about it now too.
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