http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Seeking to better understand the structure and composition of asteroid 4 Vesta, one of the major protoplanets of the asteroid belt, a team of researchers has developed a new model that reproduces the global topography observed by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, and makes predictions for the internal structure. A paper published Feb. 14 in Nature reports the team's three-dimensional simulations of Vesta's global evolution under two overlapping planet-scale collisions, starting from a spherical differentiated small planet.  http://phys.org/news280056008.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:20:20 EST news280056008 The protoplanet Vesta has been witness to an eventful past: images taken by the framing camera onboard NASA's space probe Dawn show two enormous craters in the southern hemisphere. The images were obtained during Dawn's year-long visit to Vesta that ended in September 2012. These huge impacts not only altered Vesta's shape, but also its surface composition. Scientists under the lead of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau in Germany have shown that impacting small asteroids delivered dark, carbonaceous material to the protoplanet. In the early days of our solar system, similar events may have provided the inner planets such as Earth with carbon, an essential building block for organic molecules. These results were published in the November-December issue of the journal Icarus. http://phys.org/news276443332.html Space & Earth Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:49:02 EST news276443332 (Phys.org)—Astronomers have used the ALMA telescope to get their first glimpse of a fascinating stage of star formation in which planets forming around a young star are helping the star itself continue to grow, resolving a longstanding mystery. The young system, about 450 light-years from Earth, is revealing its complex gravitational dance to the ever-sharpening vision of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), scheduled for completion this year. http://phys.org/news276347742.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:00:10 EST news276347742 (Phys.org) -- Researchers have known for some years that the Earth and moon were subjected to a veritable barrage of objects striking their surfaces nearly four million years ago, but less certain was whether those objects were asteroids, comets or even pieces of other protoplanets after they broke apart. Now however, new research by a group of lunar scientists has found, after studying moon rocks brought back by astronauts during the Apollo 16 mission, that it appears they were mostly asteroids. But not, they write in their paper published in the journal Science, the same kind as we see falling on our planet today. http://phys.org/news256551105.html Space & Earth Fri, 18 May 2012 09:50:09 EST news256551105 For the first time, an international team of researchers has incorporated extensive geochemical data on the formation of Earth into a model - with surprising results: more models can be used for the process of Earth’s accretion than previously assumed. http://phys.org/news194799255.html Space & Earth Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:20:02 EST news194799255