T he asteroid Vesta could be a huge chunk of planet that was blasted off its parent world and sent spinning into space in the aftermath of a titanic collision four-and-a-half billion years ago.

Vesta, thought to be the second-largest asteroid in the solar system, could be a piece of an ancient, unknown planet, a new study hints.

This left a massive impact crater occupying much of Vesta’s southern hemisphere and debris from this event has fallen to Earth as howardite–eucrite–diogenite (HED) meteorites. These have been traced ...

Vesta floats in the middle of the asteroid belt that fills the gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. That doughnut of rocky rubble might have coalesced into a whole planet, ...

The cold, dead asteroid Vesta might have had a very active inner life early in the solar system’s history, according to an unusual analysis of a Saharan meteorite. Vesta might have had a magma ...

The protoplanet Vesta, a large space rock in the solar system's asteroid belt, is covered with a surprising amount of hydrogen, and bits of Vesta may have rained down on Earth in the form of ...

Vesta will not reach opposition with Earth again until Oct. 13, 2026, so be sure to head out and catch a glimpse of the distant asteroid before the orbital moment slips away.

Vesta, an asteroid the size of Arizona, gets its own geologic map showing its history of meteorite impact craters over its billions of years of existence. Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers ...

New research shatters long-held beliefs about asteroid Vesta Date: April 28, 2025 Source: Michigan State University Summary: For decades, scientists believed Vesta, one of the largest objects in ...

NASA's Dawn spacecraft arrived at the giant asteroid Vesta in July 2011. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) "The lack of a core was very surprising," said Michigan State University's Seth Jacobson ...