Interesting new info on the asteroid belt (Maldek)

[ZenDunk]

http://news.discovery.com/space/protopla...20510.html

Exciting!!

I would discuss my thoughts/associations more but I'm posting from my phone and should be paying more attention to my Grandma

I will say it was in interesting read with all the Maldek related Ra material rattling around in this noggin'



By Irene Klotz
Thu May 10, 2012

THE GIST
Vesta, the second largest object in the main asteroid belt, is a protoplanet, not an asteroid.
Vesta formed within 300 million years of the beginning of the solar system's existence.
Pieces of Vesta have been found on Earth in the form of a particular type of meteorite.


Vesta, the second largest object in the main asteroid belt, has an iron core, a varied surface, layers of rock and possibly a magnetic field -- all signs of a planet in the making, not an asteroid.

So concludes an international team of scientists treated to a virtual front row seat at Vesta for the past 10 months, courtesy of NASA's Dawn robotic probe.

They have a bit more ground to cover before Dawn leaves Vesta's cratered, lava-like surface in late August to rendezvous with the king of the asteroid belt, Ceres, another type of protoplanet believed to be flush with water ice.

Already however, the Dawn science team has confirmed long-held theories about Vesta's history, a timeline that dates back to within 300 million years of the beginning of the solar system's existence.

"Vesta is like a time probe we haven't had in the solar system before," Dawn lead scientist Christopher Russell, with the University of California, Los Angeles, told Discovery News.
.......

Continue the article here:

http://news.discovery.com/space/protopla...20510.html



Wikipedias info on our asteroid belt is an interesting read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Asteroid_belt


The mythology and symbols associated with the names used to identify the largest bodies in the belt might interest some too....