Nightly News   |  May 10, 2012

Asteroid Vesta gives clues about solar system

Scientists have released a trove of data gathered by the Dawn spacecraft about Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt. The observations taken by the spacecraft are giving astronomers a glimpse into how the solar system formed. NBC’s Brian Williams reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> talk about a close encounter. nasa's dawn spacecraft is flying along a massive asteroid named vesa and has sent back information about what it looks like on the giant rock that started out as a small planet. vesta is roughly the size of arizona. it's located in the asteroid belt between mars and jupiter. it has a deeply pock-marked surface. here on earth, scientists have confirmed the bright light over nevada and california a few weeks back was indeed a visiting meteor the size of a minivan that broke up just over our at atmosphe atmosphere.