<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; "></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(2, 30, 170); "><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/pia16631.html">Full image and caption<span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span></a></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b></b></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">"A new study of images from NASA's Dawn mission examines remarkable, dark-as-coal material that speckles the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta. Scientists are using the images, taken by Dawn's framing camera, to understand the impact environment early in Vesta's evolution. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">In the most comprehensive analysis of the dark material to date, Dawn scientists describe how this carbon-rich material tends to appear around the edges of two giant impact basins in Vesta's southern hemisphere. The analysis suggests that the dark material was most likely delivered by the object that created the older of the two basins, known as Veneneia, about 2 to 3 billion years ago. Some of those materials were later covered up by the impact that created the younger basin, Rheasilvia."</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(2, 30, 170); "><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=65362&media_id=143122771">Dawn's Virtual Flight over Vesta<span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span></a></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(2, 30, 170); "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; color: #000000">A gallery of images can be found online at: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/gallery-index.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/gallery-index.html</span></a>.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">For more information on the Dawn mission, visit the Dawn home page: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/main/index.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(4, 51, 255); ">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/main/index.html</span></a>.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; "><span style="font-family: Helvetica; "></span></div></body></html>