29th March: Vesta

Vesta, minor-planet designation 4 Vesta, was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on 29 March 1807.

1. Vesta was the fourth Asteroid to be discovered, hence the number 4 in its formal designation.
2. Vesta is the second largest body in the asteroid belt after the dwarf planet Ceres. It has a mean diameter of 525 kilometres (326 mi). Its surface area is about about 800,000 square kilometers, which is about the size of Pakistan.
3. It's also the brightest asteroid visible from Earth. It is sometimes visible to the naked eye, but only in very dark skies without light pollution.
4. Vesta was the first asteroid to have its mass determined.
5. Vesta takes 3.6 years to orbit the Sun.
6. It is named after Vesta, the virgin goddess of home and hearth from Roman mythology. It is known as Vesta in most places, except for Greece and China, who have named it after their own goddess of hearth and home - Hestia in Greece and zàoshénxīng in China.
7. Scientists have estimated that temperatures on Vesta's surface range between about −20 °C when the Sun is overhead, to about −190 °C at the winter pole.
8. The surface was photographed by the Dawn spacecraft in 1912 (now on its way to visit another asteroid, Ceres). Surface features discovered include two enormous craters dubbed Rheasilvia and Veneneia which are 500-kilometre (310 mi) and 400 kilometres (250 mi) wide respectively. There is also a group of smaller craters officially called Marcia, Calpurnia, and Minucia, but informally known as The "snowman craters" because their configuration resembles a snowman.
9. Some smaller asteroids are suspected to be fragments of Vesta which broke off during impacts.
10. In astrology, Vesta represents focus, dedication, mental clarity and self-respect, and rules the metabolism and the upper intestine; also locks and keys, sisters, security, investments, insurance, inheritance, home and family, ritual, chastity and sexuality, and devotion.