Overview

• New research led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirms Vesta lacks a core, overturning its classification as a differentiated protoplanet.
• The findings are based on nearly a decade of refined analysis of gravity and imaging data collected by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft during its 2011–2012 mission.
• Two hypotheses are proposed to explain Vesta’s uniform interior: incomplete planetary differentiation or origin as collision-ejected debris from an early planet.
• Meteorite evidence attributed to Vesta complicates the incomplete differentiation hypothesis, as the samples lack signs of partial melting processes.
• Further studies of Dawn data and new approaches to analyzing Vesta meteorites are underway to resolve its formation history and implications for planetary science.