New data from NASA’s Dawn mission show that a common form of weathering that affects many airless bodies like Vesta in the inner solar system, including the moon, surprisingly doesn’t age the protoplanet’s outermost layer. The data also indicate that carbon-rich asteroids have been splattering dark material on Vesta’s surface over a long span of the body’s history.
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The findings are described in two papers published Nov. 1 in the journal Nature.
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http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/28594 (opens in a new tab)
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/protoplanet-vesta-forever-young-240211.aspx