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| NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image on its approach to the protoplanet Vesta, the second-most massive object in the main asteroid belt. The image was obtained on June 20, 2011. |
A NASA spacecraft is just 11 days away from a historic rendezvous with an asteroid the size of Arizona. NASA's Dawn probe should enter into orbit around Vesta on July 16, becoming the first spacecraft to visit the 330-mile-wide (530-kilometer) space rock — the second-largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn is expected to spend a year studying the space rock from above, marking the first time a spacecraft has ever made an extended visit to a large asteroid.
Vesta is so large that many scientists classify it as a protoplanet. The object was well on its way to becoming a full-fledged rocky planet long ago, scientists said, but circumstances intervened. So Vesta is a sort of time capsule, preserving some record of how the solar system came together 4.5 billion years ago.
Scientists hope Dawn's mission will help them learn about the early days of the solar system and the processes that formed and shaped rocky planets like Earth and Mars.
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