Vesta....an Asteroid or a Planet?

I remember when the Probe Dawn was launched, it was said to be the first enterplanetary space ship to leave earth. It was launched in 2007, the fastest thing to ever leave planet earth. It's mission is to go to Vesta and then to the Brown Dwarft Ceres, 3 Billion Miles Away in Just 4 Years. That is way fast. Well, NASA is finding out now 4 years later if it is an Asteroid or a Planet.

Many astronomers call Vesta an asteroid because it lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But Vesta is not a typical member of that orbiting rubble patch. The vast majority of objects in the main belt are lightweights, 100 kilometers wide or smaller, compared with Vesta, which is a 530 kilometer-wide behemoth.

Dawn scientists prefer to think of Vesta as a protoplanet because it is a dense, layered body that orbits the sun and began in the same fashion as Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, but somehow never fully developed. In the swinging early history of the solar system, objects became planets by merging with other Vesta-sized objects. But Vesta never found a partner during the big dance, and the critical time passed. It may have had to do with the nearby presence of Jupiter, the neighborhood's gravitational superpower, disturbing the orbits of objects and hogging the dance partners.

Link to NASA site.

science.nasa.gov...



This is something to follow up on as it is just a few more months until July when it reaches Vesta. Dawn also has Solar Panels on it and if it is felt that NASA needs to divert Vesta in another direction, the panels will reflect the Sun on Vesta and heat up one area which will cause a reaction similar to jeteson it in another direction. I don't know if this has been publicly anounanced but it is part of Dawn's Mission.

Isn't it a Planetoid now?

2nd

Since when is Ceres a brown dwarf?
Dwar planet sure but not a brown dwarf.

Here is JPL's NASA Hompage about Vesta, Cute.

dawn.jpl.nasa.gov...

On the launch video looks like something flew by the shuttle or at least within the frame of view at about 1:00 in to 1:03

reply to post by AnteBellum
That is one of the purposes of the Dawn mission to determine if it is a Huge Asteroid or a Planet. It has no moons but may carry large asteroids in it tail, I would imagine because of it's size it could be a planet in the making.

reply to post by TheBlackDog
It has been called a brown dwarf since the mission began and still is referred to as that.

Brown Dwarf in our Solar system Ceres

connect.in.com...

reply to post by coolottie

Well its not calling it a brown dwarf on the NASA Dawn site, and your link doesn't say anything about Ceres being a brown dwarf.

Originally posted by TheBlackDog
Since when is Ceres a brown dwarf?
Dwar planet sure but not a brown dwarf.

didn't you hear?
ceres got promoted to nibiru status. now it has a license to travel around the solar system wreaking havoc and posing for pictures next to the sun.

Originally posted by Sly1one
On the launch video looks like something flew by the shuttle or at least within the frame of view at about 1:00 in to 1:03

Saw that also,

It appears to change course or wobble a bit, then keeps going...

Interesting..

Originally posted by Sly1one
On the launch video looks like something flew by the shuttle or at least within the frame of view at about 1:00 in to 1:03

I also saw that object. Not sure what it is, doesn't look like a bird or plane. But anyways I'm now eager to see what the surface of Vesta looks like. I wonder why I've never heard of this though...

reply to post by TheBlackDog
In the Newspaper in 2007 about the launch they said it was going to Vesta and then own to a Brown Dwarf. But didn't even give the name of it then.

Here is a NASA JPL site where it is called a Brown Dwarf and this was a News Release. Just use google, I just put "NASA brown dwarf Ceres" easy.

planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov...

Sly1One ,,Oh I did see that on the Launch video. That was some good eyes

reply to post by TheBlackDog
Oh, I just click on the first NASA link on Google... this is from Cal Tech, and NASA, Wiki
The reason Ceres is called a brown dwarf is because it is not litup and on fire like our Sun, Our Earth is thought to have a binary star, [brown dwarf] and at some time ago it is believed Earth had 2 Suns.


www.gps.caltech.edu...

International Astronomical Union decided in 2006 that a new system of classification was needed to describe these new worlds, which are more developed than asteroids, but different than the known planets. Pluto, Eris and the asteroid Ceres became the first dwarf planets. Unlike planets, dwarf planets lack the gravitational muscle to sweep up or scatter objects near their orbits. They end up orbiting the sun in zones of similar objects such as the asteroid and Kuiper belts

NASA page for above quote
solarsystem.nasa.gov...

Wiki

en.wikipedia.org...(dwarf_planet)

google: What is the difference between a white dwarf and a brown dwarf?

starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov...

www.astronomind.com...

Usually when I have a question about something said on ATS, I just go to Google and check it out myself.

reply to post by coolottie

Very interesting thread. I think it's nice to follow these missions like this.

Yes, Ceres is a 'Dwarf Planet' not a 'Brown Dwarf'. Just take the "Brown" out of dwarf planet and you'll be fine.
Brown Dwarf is referring to a star not a planet. See what happens when you make this mistake, you get Nibiru peoples here...

reply to post by coolottie

From your links...

Dwarf Planets

The term dwarf planet was adopted in 2006.

www.astronomind.com...

Pluto, Eris and the asteroid Ceres became the first dwarf planets.

solarsystem.nasa.gov...

and Wikipedia...

Ceres, formally designated 1 Ceres, is the smallest identified dwarf planet.

en.wikipedia.org...

Now Brown Dwarfs

In order to understand what is a brown dwarf, we need to understand the difference between a star and a planet.

Brown dwarfs [stars] are objects which have a size between that of a giant planet like Jupiter and that of a small star. In fact, most astronomers would classify any object with between 15 times the mass of Jupiter and 75 times the mass of Jupiter to be a brown dwarf. Given that range of masses, the object would not have been able to sustain the fusion of hydrogen like a regular star; thus, many scientists have dubbed brown dwarfs as "failed stars".

starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov...

Now Wikipedia.

Brown dwarfs are sub-stellar objects which are too low in mass to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in their cores,
Brown dwarfs occupy the mass range between that of large gas giant planets and the lowest-mass stars; this upper limit is between 75 and 80 Jupiter masses

en.wikipedia.org...

I could Google "Brown Dwarf" more but I hope you get the idea here.
If Ceres was a Brown Dwarf star it would be several times the mass of Jupiter and surely would be visible from Earth with the unaided eye, don't you think?

reply to post by Devino
I givenin on that, I was going by what I remember in the News paper 4 years ago, and I can not even remember where my keys are. I thought they had to be either white or brown.

Sorry about that "Black Dog." We all learn something everytime we come on ATS, that is why I like it.

reply to post by TheBlackDog
I should practice what I preach, You can say "I told you so" I deserve it. Thank you for teaching me something.

reply to post by coolottie

I was trying to follow you though...
I also did a search for "NASA brown dwarf Ceres" and read the same result you linked.
planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov...
This page has articles that are both about the dwarf planet Ceres and brown dwarf stars, funny that.

I really don't like criticizing others but your thread is a good one and I thought a correction was needed.

reply to post by coolottie


Haha its cool man
I noticed the author on a couple of articles about Dwarf Planets was a Mike Brown so figured that explained the search for " NASA Brown Dwarf Ceres"
Sorry, didn't mean to derail an interesting thread

Vesta is probably a former moon of the planet that was destroyed and created the astroid belt.

Are they going to image it? I'd hope so but you never know with NASA.