Vesta - Blog Posts
What’s Up - June 2018
What’s Up For June?
Jupiter and Venus at sunset, Mars, Saturn and Vesta until dawn.
First up is Venus. It reaches its highest sunset altitude for the year this month and sets more than two hours after sunset.
You can't miss Jupiter, only a month after its opposition--when Earth was directly between Jupiter and the Sun.
The best time to observe Jupiter through a telescope is 10:30 p.m. at the beginning of the month and as soon as it's dark by the end of the month.
Just aim your binoculars at the bright planet for a view including the four Galilean moons. Or just enjoy Jupiter with your unaided eye!
Saturn is at opposition June 27th, when it and the Sun are on opposite sides of Earth. It rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. Great Saturn viewing will last several more months. The best views this month will be just after midnight.
All year, the rings have been tilted wide open--almost 26 degrees wide this month--giving us a great view of Saturn's distinctive rings.
The tilt offers us a view of the north polar region, so exquisitely imaged by the Cassini spacecraft.
Near Saturn, the brightest asteroid--Vesta--is so bright that it can be seen with your unaided eye. It will be visible for several months.
A detailed star chart will help you pick out the asteroid from the stars. The summer Milky way provides a glittery backdrop.
Finally, Mars grows dramatically in brightness and size this month and is visible by 10:30 p.m. by month end.
The best views are in the early morning hours. Earth's closest approach with Mars is only a month away. It's the closest Mars has been to us since 2003.
Watch the full What’s Up for June Video:
There are so many sights to see in the sky. To stay informed, subscribe to our What’s Up video series on Facebook. Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
Solar System: Things to Know This Week
Our Dawn mission to the asteroid belt is no ordinary deep space expedition.
Instead of traditional chemical rockets, the spacecraft uses sophisticated ion engines for propulsion. This enabled Dawn to become the first mission to orbit not one, but two different worlds — first the giant asteroid Vesta and now the dwarf planet Ceres. Vesta and Ceres formed early in the solar system's history, and by studying them, the mission is helping scientists go back in time to the dawn of the planets. To mark a decade since Dawn was launched on Sept. 27, 2007, here are 10 things to know about this trailblazing mission.
1. Ion Engines: Not Just for Sci-Fi Anymore
Most rocket engines use chemical reactions for propulsion, which tend to be powerful but short-lived. Dawn's futuristic, hyper-efficient ion propulsion system works by using electricity to accelerate ions (charged particles) from xenon fuel to a speed seven to 10 times that of chemical engines. Ion engines accelerate the spacecraft slowly, but they're very thrifty with fuel, using just milligrams of xenon per second (about 10 ounces over 24 hours) at maximum thrust. Without its ion engines, Dawn could not have carried enough fuel to go into orbit around two different solar system bodies. Try your hand at an interactive ion engine simulation.
2. Time Capsules
Scientists have long wanted to study Vesta and Ceres up close. Vesta is a large, complex and intriguing asteroid. Ceres is the largest object in the entire asteroid belt, and was once considered a planet in its own right after it was discovered in 1801. Vesta and Ceres have significant differences, but both are thought to have formed very early in the history of the solar system, harboring clues about how planets are constructed. Learn more about Ceres and Vesta—including why we have pieces of Vesta here on Earth.
3. Portrait of a Dwarf Planet
This view of Ceres built from Dawn photos is centered on Occator Crater, home of the famous "bright spots." The image resolution is about 460 feet (140 meters) per pixel.
Take a closer look.
4. What's in a Name?
Craters on Ceres are named for agricultural deities from all over the world, and other features carry the names of agricultural festivals. Ceres itself was named after the Roman goddess of corn and harvests (that's also where the word "cereal" comes from). The International Astronomical Union recently approved 25 new Ceres feature names tied to the theme of agricultural deities. Jumi, for example, is the Latvian god of fertility of the field. Study the full-size map.
5. Landslides or Ice Slides?
Thanks to Dawn, evidence is mounting that Ceres hides a significant amount of water ice. A recent study adds to this picture, showing how ice may have shaped the variety of landslides seen on Ceres today.
6. The Lonely Mountain
Ahuna Mons, a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain, puzzled Ceres explorers when they first found it. It rises all alone above the surrounding plains. Now scientists think it is likely a cryovolcano — one that erupts a liquid made of volatiles such as water, instead of rock. "This is the only known example of a cryovolcano that potentially formed from a salty mud mix, and that formed in the geologically recent past," one researcher said. Learn more.
7. Shining a Light on the Bright Spots
The brightest area on Ceres, located in the mysterious Occator Crater, has the highest concentration of carbonate minerals ever seen outside Earth, according to studies from Dawn scientists. Occator is 57 miles (92 kilometers) wide, with a central pit about 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide. The dominant mineral of this bright area is sodium carbonate, a kind of salt found on Earth in hydrothermal environments. This material appears to have come from inside Ceres, and this upwelling suggests that temperatures inside Ceres are warmer than previously believed. Even more intriguingly, the results suggest that liquid water may have existed beneath the surface of Ceres in recent geological time. The salts could be remnants of an ocean, or localized bodies of water, that reached the surface and then froze millions of years ago. See more details.
8. Captain's Log
Dawn's chief engineer and mission director, Marc Rayman, provides regular dispatches about Dawn's work in the asteroid belt. Catch the latest updates here.
9. Eyes on Dawn
Another cool way to retrace Dawn's decade-long flight is to download NASA's free Eyes on the Solar System app, which uses real data to let you go to any point in the solar system, or ride along with any spacecraft, at any point in time—all in 3-D.
10. No Stamp Required
Send a postcard from one of these three sets of images that tell the story of dwarf planet Ceres, protoplanet Vesta, and the Dawn mission overall.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
What’s Up for February?
What's Up for February? Look to the night sky for a brighter Venus, Comet 45P, asteroid Vesta and more.
Tonight, you can see Venus along with a crescent moon, Mars and Uranus just after sunset. No binoculars needed!
While there are no meteor showers this month, behold the zodiacal light!
This phenomenon is caused when sunlight reflects off dust particles in the plane of our solar system. Use Venus and Mars as a cone-shaped guide on the western horizon in late February and March.
Comet 45P will be visible using binoculars and telescope and will make its closest approach to Earth on February 11.
Finally, bright asteroid Vesta can be found in the constellation Pisces.
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First of all, thanks for the tag @lancedoncrimsonwings! So this is a bunny plot I've been having for a long time, so it's time to put it on paper! But this will need a little context first.
France were considered a Latin country because of its language, nowadays it is no longer, but what does that mean? I looked for old French and the religion before Christianity, and discovered that they have heritage from three peoples: Celtic (Gauls), Germanic (Franks), and Latin (Romans). So that gives me three options for ancient religions for Lancelot: Celtic mythology (which would be the same as Gawain), Germanic/Norse mythology, and Greco-Roman mythology. But let's be honest, I really want to mix 'em and make the ash folk worship Hestia, Vesta in Roman, goddess of primordial and sacred fire; Belive that it's okay to die in battle because he'll go to Valhalla if that happens; And that he should be careful with nature at all costs because this is a manifestation of the gods. Gawain have Celtic mythology as his religion and worships many gods, but most importantly he worships Dune, as with all fey folks, because she is the mother Goddess of Celtic mythology.
Having explained that, what follows may be short and is much lighter than what I usually write.
It took some time for Lancelot to get used to the lack of restrictions of religion, or to the fact that he had no religion at all now. He became bored with everyday life very quickly now that he didn't have the christianity routine to follow. Finding himself sleeping without even being tired during the day quite oftenly, eating without praying first anymore, and willingly not fasting on sundays or doing frequent prayers.
He missed talking to God when he needed to, he never responded, but it was good to talk and let everything out. Deceiving himself that he was listening hurt, but it was also the only time he could let it out and allow himself to feel.
The months passed and they managed to settle in an abandoned place, they called it New Nemos, a very uncreative name for a place with so many heads. He still shared the house with Gawain and Squirrel, but something was out of place. Lancelot felt strange every time he passed through the entrance or the small living room, something had been bothering him since they arrived, and they had only been here for three days.
He felt a dull discomfort throughout his body and in his heart, a tightness in his throat that made him frown. He didn't realize what it was until he sat down to read and try to forget and accommodate, it was only then that something came to him. A smell of smoke, but there was no fire anywhere in the house, he checked- oh… It's only then that his brain ring the bells.
Lancelot was no longer a christian, but before he was forced into christianity, he and his folk worshiped Vesta, the goddess of fire, and it was tradition to light a sacred fire in the hearth whenever they moved or built something new as a symbol of the goddess and her protection. The discomfort he felt and the smell of smoke was Vestia asking him to light the hearth like he used to do before.
Lancelot goes to the hearth and lights it with fey fire that he made from his own bare hands. "Better now?" He asks, looking at the hearth, and an almost imperceptible smile appears at the corner of his lips, his marks turn bright red, his eyes shine slightly when he sees the fire move and sway upwards, as if it were smiling and talking to him.
Maybe Vesta wanted him back. Maybe he wasn't as alone as he thought. His heart fills and the discomfort disappears, a sigh leaving his nostrils. Perhaps his gods still considered him their child.
ACGB
So this is another thing I was working with... I started this to understand how to work on my original mockup, I never worked with tiles and preset palettes and sizes before, so it was quite a challenge. I made a full set of tiles, that are way too boring to show here... but I made all the fruits, all the flowers and their wilted variation, weeds, rafflesias, some normal trees, pines, palms, grass, rock, etc... it was a lot of work... maybe someday I'll work on more full screen compositions, to show all the tiles... but for now, I can show vesta and kabuki, because they're not that boring... idk if I'll keep on doing this though...
Another dump, I wanna say this is all my animal crossing related art, but actually is just a bunch of Statics, Luckys and some Bobs with just one Vesta, so much for variety, but you can easily guess who my neighbours are... but now that I remember, I still have some AC stuff on my other computer, another AC dump may come later
Animal crossing pixels
These guys are part of my dream team, except from Poncho... well, I actually do like him but I dunno if I want to keep him around forever, I already have Vesta and Static, but I really want Biskit and Lucky to move to my town ;m;