How the Vesta was spun
The latest news from the Dawn probe at Vesta: NASA has posted a video showing a full rotation of the protoplanet, compiled from Dawn photographs. I don’t seem to be able to get the embed code to work, so here’s a link:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=104094441
It’s fascinating to watch, with so many complex features. I’m really wondering what caused those parallel striations around the equator. I’m also wondering if that big mountain in the southern hemisphere is really what scientists have assumed it was, the central bulge of a crater so big it pretty much flattened out the rest of the hemisphere. It doesn’t really look like there’s a crater there. Maybe it’s so old that the edges have been worn away, but maybe the mountain is something else. And that would mean I’d have to do a bit of rewriting in Only Superhuman.
Any word yet on what the experts make of those striations? Very interesting photos, indeed!