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Vesta

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ASTEROID

Vesta

The second-largest main-belt asteroid — a differentiated protoplanet with a giant south-polar scar.

Orbits Sun Main-belt asteroid; protoplanet (V-type)
  • Second-largest main-belt asteroid after Ceres; contains 9% of asteroid belt mass.
  • Differentiated u2014 has iron core, rocky mantle, and basaltic crust.
  • South-polar Rheasilvia impact basin 500 km across, ejecting the HED meteorites found on Earth.
  • Orbited 2011-2012 by NASA Dawn.

Physical Properties

263 km
2.59076e20 kg
3.456 g/cm³
5.342 h
0.4228

Orbit

Sun
2.362 AU
0.0894
7.142°
3.629 yr

Sources & Further Reading

Numerical values (radius, mass, orbital elements, temperatures) are drawn from NASA NSSDC Planetary Fact Sheets, JPL Horizons, and the JPL Small-Body Database. Last refreshed: 2026-04-18 18:19:26.

Vesta is the second-largest asteroid in the main belt and a protoplanet: it grew large enough to differentiate into core, mantle, and crust before the formation of Jupiter truncated its growth. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. Its surface features the Rheasilvia impact basin — 500 km across and 19 km deep in the south polar region — whose ejecta have been traced on Earth as the HED (howardite-eucrite-diogenite) meteorite class.