Dec 1, 2009

Last month Dawn, a space probe sent to analyze the mega asteroid Vesta and its bigger brother Ceres officially entered the asteroid belt. Contrary to what you might have seen on Star Wars, it’s very unlikely that Dawn will run into an over sized boulder, let alone a large pebble as it travels its way between the inner and outer planets. Despite the fact...

May 23, 2007

(Image: Asteroid Vesta in false color. Credit: NASA) Like a hostile mountain range separating civilization from the wilderness, the asteroid belt divides our Earthen and (future) Martian homes from the Jovian frontier. In this wilderness of floating boulders, lies a region that is often regarded as rubble, forgotten rocks of little beauty and appeal. But in this...