Only Asteroid Visible to Naked Eye in Sky This Week

chuckpeters writes "Vesta, the only asteroid that can be seen by the naked eye will be visible over the next week. Vesta was the fourth asteroid to be discovered and is the second largest. It is in the constellation Virgo and has just passed opposition. Vesta has very large, circular crater near the asteroid's south pole that is so deep it exposes the mantle. The asteroid appears to have differentiated into layers like the planets."

Circular crater

[nebbian]

Vesta has very large, circular crater

Come on, it's the deathstar, isn't it?

Drat!

[c4tp's friend]

I was just thinking I needed to get my telescope out, now it seems I don't need to at all. Oh well, back to my P-Strain Theories anyhow.

OOOo your Mantle is showing

[icemax]

Vesta has very large, circular crater near the asteroid's south pole that is so deep it exposes the mantle.

Parents, be forewarned, sky pornography is the leading cause of eyestrain for children of the age 12-18

Northern Hemisphere only ?

[OzPixel]

There's nothing at starryskies.com (yes, I read (skimmed) the article) to say where you can view this asteroid from. I wish these astronomy sites would remember that it's possible to view the night sky from Down Under too ...

David (in Melbourne).

Virgo can be seen equally well from both.

[MarkusQ]

There's nothing at starryskies.com (yes, I read (skimmed) the article) to say where you can view this asteroid from. I wish these astronomy sites would remember that it's possible to view the night sky from Down Under too ...

It's in the constellation Virgo (see the diagram at the very end of the article). Virgo can be seen from pretty much anywhere on earth (Think about it: the sun spends one month a year in Virgo, and nobody complains that they can't see it from their home town).

From Melbourne (aka "Mel'b'n") Virgo should be about half way up, to the north, moving across the sky from east to west as the night progresses. Use a southern hemisphere star chart if you need help locating it. The aforementioned diagram tells where to look in Virgo to see the asteroid, depending on the date.

-- MarkusQ

Re:Virgo can be seen equally well from both.

[leehwtsohg]

There are actually people who complain that they can not see the sun for months in a row.

Misleading title

[bardencj]

Slashdot's newspaper-style headlines can be confusing sometimes...

Anybody else scan the title and think, "Wha?! Only an asteroid will be visible in the sky? What about the sun?"

Very timely, as usual.

[Harik]

I note the article points out "March 26th, and a week or so aftewards" so slashdot's speedy headline service should read "Wow! You just missed..."

Re:Very timely, as usual.

[c4tp's friend]

"On March 26th Vesta reached opposition to the Sun and was visible throughout the night. Opposition is when a body forms a straight line with the Earth and Sun, Earth being in the middle. For a few weeks after opposition, Vesta may be glimpsed with the unaided eye. Use the sky map to aid spotting the asteroid. Keep in mind that Vesta is not a bright object and you will need dark skies, away from artificial lights, to see it."

Re:Very timely, as usual.

[Harik]

Ok, I'm missing something then. Isn't opposition the peak brightness for an object? (Vis: The moon)

... so it just gets dimmer after that, no?

can someone explain

[Mantorp]

how they know that meteorite on the page there is from Vesta?

Naked

[David Leppik]

You know, many astronomy sites (Seti@Home for one) have stopped using the term "naked eye" because it gets them censored by pr0n filters.

Re:Naked

[chuckpeters]

The article used the term unaided eye. It does suck that language is so politically correct these days. A little while ago someone showed me a couple of pages of terms that aren't supposed to be used. For example founding fathers is considered sexist.