*Description*:> Astronomers used Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 to snap new images of the asteroid Vesta on May 14 and 16, 2007. Using Hubble, astronomers mapped Vesta's southern hemisphere, a region dominated by a giant impact crater formed by a collision billions of years ago. The crater is 295 miles across, which is nearly equal to Vesta's 330-mile diameter. This 20-frame movie shows widespread extensive global features as they rotate across the face of Vesta stretching longitudinally from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere. Vesta rotates once about every 5.34 hours. The images hint at the large-scale features that will come into view when the Dawn spacecraft arrives at Vesta in 2011. Technical facts about this news release: About the Object Ceres - January 24, 2004 CERES Object Name: Ceres, 1 Ceres Object Description: Minor Body in the Main Asteroid Belt Distance: The semi-major axis of Ceres' orbit about the Sun is 2.77 Astronomical Units (A.U.) or roughly 257 million miles (414 million kilometers). At the time of the Hubble observations, Ceres was roughly 1.63 A.U. from Earth. Dimensions: Ceres is has a mean diameter of approximately 590 miles (950 kilometers). The object has a 974.6 km diameter at the equator and a slightly smaller diameter (909.4 km) pole-to-pole. About the Data Data Description: This image was created from data from the HST proposal 9748: J. Parker (Southwest Research Institute), L. McFadden (University of Maryland), C. Russell (University of California, Los Angeles), A. Stern (Southwest Research Institute), M. Sykes (University of Arizona), P. Thomas (Cornell University) and E. Young (Southwest Research Institute). The science team includes J. Parker (Southwest Research Institute), P. Thomas (Cornell University), L. McFadden (University of Maryland, College Park), and M. Mutchler and Z. Levay (Space Telescope Science Institute). Instrument: ACS/HRC Exposure Date(s): December 2003 - January 2004 Filters: F330W ("U") and F555W ("V") About the Image Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Parker (Southwest Research Institute) Color/Scale: This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the ACS HRC instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using several different filters. Two filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: F330W ("U") blue F555W ("V") red/orange Orientation: Ceres - January 24, 2004 [ http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2007/27/images/b/formats/compass_large_web.jpg ] About the Object Vesta - May 14, 2007 VESTA Object Name: Vesta, 4 Vesta Object Description: Minor Body in the Main Asteroid Belt Distance: The semi-major axis of Vesta's orbit about the Sun is 2.36 Astronomical Units (A.U.) or roughly 219 million miles (353 million kilometers). At the time of the Hubble observations, Vesta was roughly 1.2 A.U. from Earth. Dimensions: Vesta is has a mean diameter of approximately 330 miles (530 kilometers). The object has a 354 mile (570 km) diameter at the equator and a slightly smaller diameter 288 miles (464 km) pole-to-pole. About the Data Data Description: This image was created from data from the HST proposal 10799: L. McFadden and J.Y. Li (University of Maryland, College Park), M. Sykes (University of Arizona), P. Thomas (Cornell University), C. Russell (University of California, Los Angeles), and J. Parker and E. Young (Southwest Research Institute). The science team includes L. McFadden and J.Y. Li (University of Maryland, College Park), M. Mutchler and Z. Levay (Space Telescope Science Institute), P. Thomas (Cornell University), J. Parker and E. Young (Southwest Research Institute), and C. Russell and B. Schmidt (University of California, Los Angeles). Instrument: WFPC2 Exposure Date(s): May 14 - 16, 2007 Filters: F439W ("B") and F673N ([SII]) About the Image Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and L. McFadden (University of Maryland) Color: This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the WFPC2 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using two different filters. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: F439W ("B") blue F673N ([SII]) red Orientation: Vesta - May 14, 2007 [ http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2007/27/images/c/formats/compass_large_web.jpg ] *News Release Number:*: STScI-2007-27b

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