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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Dawn's first view of Vesta (processed)

Dawn's first view of Vesta (processed)
Dawn's first view of Vesta (processed) Dawn was about 1.2 million kilometers away from Vesta when it took this photo on May 3, 2011. In this version the area around Vesta has had its brightness reduced so you can see the actual size of the asteroid, and the rest of the image has had the brightness massively increased to reveal more background stars. In the upper right corner is an enlarged view of the few pixels that span the asteroid. NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA