Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

Vesta Rocks

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 10, 2011 is “Vesta Rocks,” an image. It is credited to Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Hap McSween (Univ. Tennessee), A. Beck and T. McCoy (Smithsonian Inst.). The original explanation runs about 140 words.

Vesta Rocks
Credit: Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Hap McSween (Univ. Tennessee), A. Beck and T. McCoy (Smithsonian Inst.) Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“These colorful images are of thin slices of meteorites viewed through a polarizing microscope. Part of the group classified as HED (Howardite, Eucrite, Diogenite) meteorites for their mineral content, they likely fell to Earth from 4 Vesta , the mainbelt asteroid currently being explored by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft .”

— APOD editors, December 10, 2011

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
December 10, 2011
Type
Image
Credit
Credit: Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Hap McSween (Univ. Tennessee), A. Beck and T. McCoy (Smithsonian Inst.)
Copyright
No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 140 words

All of December 2011 → · 2011 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

Asteroids

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: December 10 in other years

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.