The asteroid Vesta is becoming more visible – Diario La Provincia SJ

Since June 19, when he produced his closest approach, and probably until July 15, we can observe one of the largest asteroids that orbit around the solar system, and that is also considered a protoplaneta. At first glance

this is Vesta, the second largest object in size that is positioned in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. Although sometimes it can be found at the naked eye, these days he continues to make his closest approach to the Earth for the last 11 years, since the previous one was in 2007.

Vesta approached 170.6 million kilometers from Earth on June 19th. Surpbaded only in the solar system by another large asteroid such as Ceres, Vesta is a large rock 570 kilometers wide that also reflects a large amount of sunlight, something that scientists do not understand, but 43% compared to the Moon, which is only 12%.

Astronomers have suggested that this asteroid could have its own magnetic field that would protect the surface, keeping it bright.

It should be noted that a NASA spacecraft, Dawn, visited Vesta in 2011 for nearly a year, when he left for Ceres. How to locate it? For those of us who live in the southern hemisphere, we can see it much higher up in the night sky. Either with a homemade telescope and even with binoculars, you can see it a lot better, when this huge rock approaches the planet Saturn.

Source: www.cronica.com.ar