Asteroid close-up reveals striking features

A new video from NASA's Dawn spacecraft takes us on a flyover of the second most massive object in the asteroid belt, Vesta.

Researchers are using the data obtained by Dawn's framing camera, used to produce the visualizations, to help them figure out what caused Vesta's unusual surface features, especially the massive circular structure in the south pole region.

The circular structure, or depression, is several hundreds of miles, or kilometers, wide, with cliffs that are also several miles high, according to NASA's press release. One impressive mountain in the center of the depression rises approximately 9 miles (15 kilometers) above the base of this depression, making it one of the highest elevations on all known bodies with solid surfaces in the solar system.

The video can be viewed in full, with a narrative here:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1020.