Asteroid collision that spawned Vesta's asteroid family occurred more recently than thought

A team of researchers led by a NASA Lunar Science Institute member based at Southwest Research Institute has discovered evidence that the giant impact crater Rheasilvia on Asteroid Vesta was created in a collision that occurred only about one billion years ago, much more recently than previously thought. This result is based on the analysis of high-resolution images obtained with the Dawn spacecraft, which entered orbit around Vesta in July 2011. Read more