On March 29, 1807, the German astronomer Heinrich Olbers discovered the asteroid Vesta.
Vesta is the second-largest body in the asteroid belt and is surpassed in size only by the dwarf planet Ceres. To look for asteroids, astronomers would draw sky charts every night and look for spots that moved. Sunlight reflecting off the asteroids can make them look like faint stars, but unlike stars, the asteroids didn't have a fixed location in the sky. Vesta was the fourth object to be discovered in the region between Mars and Jupiter, which we now know as the asteroid belt. Olbers and other astronomers thought the asteroid belt might be the remains of a hypothetical planet that was either smashed to pieces by a collision or ripped apart by Jupiter's gravity.
Vesta is the second-largest body in the asteroid belt and is surpassed in size only by the dwarf planet Ceres. To look for asteroids, astronomers would draw sky charts every night and look for spots that moved. Sunlight reflecting off the asteroids can make them look like faint stars, but unlike stars, the asteroids didn't have a fixed location in the sky. Vesta was the fourth object to be discovered in the region between Mars and Jupiter, which we now know as the asteroid belt. Olbers and other astronomers thought the asteroid belt might be the remains of a hypothetical planet that was either smashed to pieces by a collision or ripped apart by Jupiter's gravity.
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00:00On this day in space.
00:03On March 29, 1807, the German astronomer Heinrich Olberts discovered the asteroid Vesta.
00:09Vesta is the second largest body in the asteroid belt and is surpassed in size only by the dwarf planet Ceres.
00:15To look for asteroids, astronomers would draw sky charts every night and look for spots that moved.
00:20Sunlight reflecting off the asteroids can make them look like faint stars.
00:24But unlike stars, the asteroids didn't have a fixed location in the sky.
00:28Vesta was the fourth object to be discovered in the region between Mars and Jupiter, which we now know as the asteroid belt.
00:34Olberts and other astronomers thought the asteroid might be the remains of a hypothetical planet
00:38that was either smashed to pieces by a collision or ripped apart by Jupiter's gravity.
00:43And that's what happened on this day in space.