Soar Over Asteroid Vesta in 3-D [720]

Glide over the giant asteroid Vesta with NASA's Dawn spacecraft in a new 3-D video. Dawn has been orbiting Vesta since July 15, obtaining high-resolution images of its bumpy, cratered surface and making other scientific measurements. Best viewed with red-blue glasses, the video incorporates images from Dawn's framing camera from July to August 2011. It was created by Dawn team member Ralf Jaumann of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The images were obtained when Dawn was making its approach to Vesta, and while orbiting the giant asteroid in its first science orbit, known as survey orbit, at an altitude of about 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers). The video begins with a global view of Vesta from the plane of its equator, where a mysterious band of linear ridges and troughs can be seen. The movie cuts to a flyover of young craters in the northern hemisphere, whose peculiar alignment has led some scientists to refer to them as the "snowman." Then this virtual tour of Vesta takes the viewer around a massive mountain at the south pole of Vesta that is about 16 miles (25 kilometers) high, or more than twice the height of Mt. Everest.

"If you want to know what it's like to explore a new world like Vesta, this new video gives everyone a chance to see it for themselves," Jaumann said. "Scientists are poring over these images to learn more about how the craters, hills, grooves and troughs we see were created."

Vesta is the second most massive object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn is currently spiraling down to its low altitude mapping orbit, which will bring the spacecraft to about 130 miles (210 kilometers) above Vesta's surface.

"Dawn's data thus far have revealed the rugged topography and complex textures of the surface of Vesta, as can be seen in this video," said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Soon, we'll add other pieces of the puzzle such as the chemical composition, interior structure, and geologic age to be able to write the history of this remnant protoplanet and its place in the early solar system."

credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

source: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1041

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Dawn mission
• asteroid orbiter
• Vesta
• dwarf planet
• anaglyph movie

[NightBazaar]

Glad I saved my old 3-D specs

[djxatlanta]

@NightBazaar - I always keep a set of 3D glasses handy, but they're easily obtainable online. I think a few places even send out one cardboard pair for free.

[NightBazaar]

@djxatlanta I've got 2 or 3 csrdboard pairs that came along with some 3-D comics from years & years ago. They're still in excellent shape, and come in handy when videos like this, or 3-D images of Mars, etc., show up online.

[djxatlanta]

@NightBazaar - plenty of 3D images of Vesta on NASA's Planetary Photojournal website and lots of 3D images of Mars at hirise [dot] lpl [dot] arizona [dot] edu [slash] anaglyph and sci [dot] esa [dot] int [slash] marsexpress (each of the regular pics contain 3D versions)

[AsymptoteInverse]

It's at times like these I wish I wasn't stereoblind...

[djxatlanta]

@AsymptoteInverse - Fortunately, I foresee a time when there will be a number of alternate 3D display options to combat those who have difficulties with stereopsis, monocular vision or total blindness. Perhaps one day stereo imaging can be beamed directly into the brain's visual cortex via a special helmet; or stereo video can be translated directly into a haptic monitor... I'm sure your challenges are being worked on and will be overcome -- if not for you, then for those that follow. =)

[AsymptoteInverse]

@djxatlanta Actually, in my experience, you don't even need to get as fancy as that. Since my condition is congenital, my brain's figured out other ways to gauge depth, and so I find when two video streams with a decent amount of parallax between them are interleaved and flash pretty quickly, it looks like how I always imagine stereovision would. If I had more technical skills, I could probably rig something up with a video headset. :)