WTF Vesta???

Is Vesta a planet? Where are the volcanoes? Why is it like an avocado?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/17/MN8R1M8PTI.DTL

music on 'roids

We'll be starting a new series of posts presenting asteroid/space related music. By the end of the year, we will hopefully have compiled a playlist good enough to communicate human creativity to the aliens after the asteroids have wiped us all out.

Installment 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5h-LAvQDCQ

-David

note - a post on the merits of localizing our discussion of NEO hazards will be coming in the near future

Vesta's Weird Crater

As the Dawn probe has gathered information on Vesta, several things have become apparent. Something happened that rendered the bottom of Vesta totally flat, even though it's large enough for gravity to press it into a sphere. The crater is unlike anything seen before in the solar system and scientists have yet to determine a cause. There are also questions about whether Vesta demonstrates evidence of past volcanism. Luckily more information will be forthcoming as Dawn will get closer in the coming months.

http://www.irishweatheronline.com/news/space/asteroids/the-canyons-valleys-and-mountains-of-asteroid-vesta/38220.html

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/09/17/vestas-odd-bottom/

Dawn and Vesta

We started this blog at an interesting time in relation to major asteroid news. Yesterday Dawn, a NASA probe, hopefully began orbiting Vesta.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43777165/ns/technology_and_science-space/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/destination-asteroid-nasa-probe-arrives-at-ancient-mini-moon/2011/07/15/gIQAsOxdGI_story.html

Vesta is interesting because of what it could reveal about the origins of the solar system and our planet. Had Vesta not been affected by Jupiter's gravity sometime after its formation, we would have another planet in our solar system instead of the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt.

Asteroid Card of the Day

Hitting the debt ceiling can’t be as bad as an asteroid or Obama would have compromised by now

Hot Air 7/14/11 (“ If default would be a catastrophe, why is Obama opposed to a short-term deal that would avert it? ” http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/14/if-default-would-be-a-catastrophe-why-is-obama-opposed-to-a-short-term-deal-that-would-avert-it/)

 I tossed that question out on Twitter this morning and no one had an answer. Verum Serum and Ace have been thinking the same thing and they don’t have answers either. Simple question: If, as the White House insists, hitting the debt ceiling would be the economic equivalent of an asteroid hitting the Earth, and if the only way to avoid that (i.e. the only way to get something through the House) is with a scaled-down bill that would raise the ceiling only until mid-2012, why isn’t the Lightbringer okay with that? Granted, it would mean he’d have to face another asteroid next year in the middle of the campaign, but so what? How is that a reason to let this asteroid hit right now?