vesta- a planet?
| Vesta could be the 4th Planet ... Vesta's surface shows a geology similar to that of terrestrial worlds such as Earth. Hubble images have revealed a diverse world with ancient lava flows and a gigantic impact basin that is so deep, it exposes the asteroid's subsurface, or mantle. Ground-based spectroscopy of Vesta indicates regions that are basaltic, which means it once had a molten interior, like Earth does. This contradicts conventional ideas that asteroids are essentially cold, rocky fragments left behind from the early days of planetary formation. Could it be then that Vesta is a mini-planet? Possibly. What we know for sure now is that its surface resembles that of the Moon and its mantle - that of the Earth. Further research will show whether there could be any conditions similar to those here on Earth, which to enable us to identify it as a small new planet! Why is it so small than? Vesta's core and active past make it much more like a small planet than like a simple piece of rock. Vesta formed at the same time and in the same solar system environment as the terrestrial planets, but is is much smaller- it never grew to planetary size because of the formation of Jupiter at 5.2 AU (which caused disruptive resonance in the asteroid belt). So, Vesta actully looks like Earth in our planet's early history! Vesta's orbit as compared to Earth's and Mars's
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