While a robot explores the earth’s neighboring planet Mars, the unmanned Dawn mission has set out for even more distant destinations. The NASA spacecraft, which is equipped with German-made cameras, spent a year exploring the asteroid Vesta, sending stunning images back to earth.
Along with hundreds of thousands of smaller asteroids, Vesta - which is approximately 500 kilometers in diameter - is part of the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Tomorrow Today takes an up-close look at the results of Dawn’s year-long encounter with the asteroid.