Hydrogen Belt
Earlier this month, NASA's Dawn spacecraft said goodbye to the large asteroid it's been orbiting. Vesta, which is in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars, was chosen for study because it's actually so large its considered a protoplanet. Dawn spent over a year orbiting, and scientists hope that the data it has sent back will tell us more about how the planets in our solar system evolved. Above is a screenshot from a video (click through to watch) that depicts hydrogen levels on Vesta's surface. Gray means low levels, while red -- which is concentrated around the equator -- indicates high levels. This result came as a surprise to scientists, who figured water ice (the likely form of hydrogen) might be sustained up at the poles, but that it wouldn't be as stable near the equator. They have lots of time to delve into the data from Vesta while Dawn heads to its second target, Ceres; its expected to arrive in February 2015.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/PSI/MPS/DLR/IDA
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