Vesta's chastity is associated with the sign of Virgo, but she also has an affinity with the sign of Scorpio. In the original Zodiac of Assyrian culture there was no constellation of Libra: Virgo was followed by Scorpio, and what later became Libra was the claw of Scorpio. The symbols of Virgo and Scorpio are similar, only the sign of Virgo is directed inward, and Scorpio is directed outward. The Great Mother Goddess symbolized both the chastity of the Virgo and the matrimony of Scorpio at the same time. And only in patriarchal culture, the marriage sign of Libra created an artificial division of female roles (virginity before marriage and sexuality after). The discovery of Vesta shows the possibility of combining these two themes in one archetype.

The Vestals of late Rome appear to us as nuns, occupied only with work and religious service, whose lives are devoid of personal relationships. This image has come down to us as the image of an old maid. However, in horoscopes this interpretation does not work: we often find good position Vesta in sexually active women and men. However, this sexuality is not limited to the traditional family, but refers us to the ancient rituals of the priestesses of Vesta, who used their sexuality not to find a husband, but to serve the goddess Luna and bless those who are devoted to her. Their sexual idealism aims to achieve ecstatic states. Modern society still does not understand the purity of such motivation.

Vesta type people are highly sensitive to a woman's sexual needs, while at the same time their nature encourages them to remain within themselves and avoid long-term attachments. Such people may express open rebellion against traditional mores, followed by feelings of guilt and remorse for their actions. The pathology associated with Vesta is the association of sex with fear (the horror of the Great Mother described by Freud).

In the Olympian family, Vesta is considered the eldest child of Saturn. Her relationship with Saturn is confirmed by the fact that they rule the earth signs Virgo and Capricorn. They both express the principles of limitation, limit, focus and mission. The sexual restrictions reflected by Vesta are similar to the intense aspects of Saturn to Venus and Mars. Vesta affliction of Mars may reflect physical or psychological impotence. Aggression can serve as compensation. A affliction of Venus or Juno may indicate that a woman is frigid or feels incapable of love. Compensation may be feigned independence. In both cases, the defeat of Vesta indicates an inability to share oneself with others (to give oneself to another). At the same time, the potential partner appears to be a rude, demanding tyrant.

Overall, Vesta reflects the principle of sex as a means of spiritual service. However, in modern soul it often reveals a wide range of sexual difficulties resulting from the suppression of natural instincts.

In Leo, sexual energy works as the creative principle of self-reproduction. In Virgo, the energy of reproduction is used spiritually for the sake of transformation and renewal of the self. Through Vesta the transition from Leo to Virgo takes place. The Vesta type can sublimate and transform sexual energy into single-pointed focus and dedication to work. Virginity implies perfection in oneself, self-control and self-sufficiency. Therefore, it is not barren, but very fruitful. To renew their purity and integrity, the Vestals bathed in sacred springs and retreated into themselves, and transits to Vesta can mark a time of internal cleansing and reintegration.

As the principle of focus, Vesta collects energy and directs it to one point. With afflicted Vesta, the focus may be blurred and vague or, at the other extreme, be too specific and give rise to a narrow and limited vision of the world. Through self-determination, a person is able to devote himself to a goal. Vesta's affliction may indicate that the person is afraid to make commitments or is unable to fulfill them. Vesta can also mean a person's work in the sense of his path, his fulfillment of his dharma. This focus goes beyond the personal and extends to society and the planet. If a person is unable to perform this type of work, it can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction. Thus, Vesta also indicates the sacrifices that a person must make in order to follow the chosen path.

Describes 12 styles of focusing, committing, and what we must give up to fulfill our life purpose. She also describes the way of dealing with sexual energy: its freedom, sublimation or suppression.

Vesta in houses indicates an area of ​​commitment or dedication to something, as well as an area of ​​limitation.

Vesta in houses

Vesta in 1st house

Due to a strong focus on self-determination or pursuing one's own goals, there may be a tendency to exclude long-term relationships from one's life. One-pointedness and abstinence can lead to significant achievements. Being true to yourself.

Vesta in the 2nd house

The ability to generate resources to provide and support oneself and loved ones. There may be restrictions on money, comfort and feelings so that the tension created leads to learning the art of self-expression.

Vesta in the 3rd house

The purpose of the advanced mind is to disseminate information to others. Limitations in communication may occur in order to clarify own ideas. If a person is critical of himself, he may experience a feeling of inferiority of his intelligence. This position is characterized by working with the intellect.

Vesta in the 4th house

Devotion to home and family. Often, additional responsibilities at home in youth develop into responsibilities towards the family later. Such a person may experience restrictions in personal freedom due to these obligations. An efficient and skilled approach to household chores is required.

Vesta in the 5th house

A calling to personal creative expression – in children or artistic forms. There may be alienation from children, romances and pleasures. Due to excessive sublimation of sexual energy, obstacles may arise in this area. There is a need for a creative profession or something that puts a person in the center of attention.

Vesta in the 6th house

Dedication to work and efficient functioning. Health difficulties can draw attention to self-medication, nutrition and physical exercise. The incentive to improve can lead to very good performance.

Vesta in the 7th house

The calling to work in collaboration. Since Vesta craves self-fulfillment and independence, conflict may arise in cases where compromise is required. Often the person is overly engrossed in the interaction.

Vesta in the 8th house

A calling to psychic and occult activities or deep interaction with others. These people may also have difficulty finding someone who matches their sexual intensity, and thus may feel limited in this area. Difficulties with others over the distribution of resources—money and energy—can lead to learning the ability to renounce personal desires and share property.

Vesta in the 9th house

A call to seek the truth. Excessive focus on a belief system can lead to political or religious fanaticism. Limiting the breadth of your horizons. The ideal image must be found in the material world.

Vesta in the 10th house

Devotion to a career or position in society. Closeness to the MC may indicate a spiritual calling. There may be difficulties in finding a satisfying purpose and path if critical abilities are developed. Potential talents include tremendous discipline, thoroughness and the will to work hard.

Vesta in the 11th house

A call to group interaction. There may be restrictions in friends or company, and this makes a person understand the value of others in his life. There is a need to fuse hopes and desires together so that a person can devote himself to an ideal.

Vesta in the 12th house

Devoting oneself to selfless service and following spiritual values. There is a strong subconscious need to isolate and withdraw in order to develop deep faith. Persecution for religious beliefs or fear of mistakes in the past can cause fear of penetration into the spiritual nature. There may be subconscious sexual fears and barriers that are overcome by combining the desire for the infinite with a practical assessment of the physical world and its limitations.

Asteroid Vesta is a celestial wanderer that has survived more than one large-scale disaster, leaving us with many interesting space artifacts.

Vesta became number 4 in order of discovery in the main asteroid belt. It was noticed by the German astronomer Heinrich Olbers in 1807. It owes its name to the greatest mathematician Carl Gauss; it was he who proposed naming the found asteroid after the patroness of family and hearth from Ancient Rome.

Location and characteristics

Vesta is located in a wide asteroid belt located between Jupiter and Mars. It is filled with cosmic bodies of various sizes and a significant number of small planets.

Asteroid Vesta is the second largest among its neighbors (530 km), it is second to Pallas at only 2 km in diameter. But in terms of mass, it overtook everyone - 2.59x10 in 20 kg - this figure became the largest among similar objects, after Ceres was classified as a dwarf planet. Temperatures on the asteroid vary seasonally: in winter this figure is about -190 degrees, and in summer - 3 degrees below 0. The eastern region is highly reflective, and in the western part there are darker areas of basalt rocks.

Surface and subsurface

Topographic map of the asteroid Vesta, showing the relief of the northern and southern hemispheres. Compiled from photographs acquired between July 17, 2011 and August 26, 2012 by NASA's DAWN spacecraft.

At the beginning of its formation, Vesta had an iron core and a rocky mantle, which were partially melted by internal heat. Over time, cooling occurred and a large amount of minerals appeared. This fact is confirmed by meteorites found on Earth that left the asteroid after powerful impacts. The surface of Vesta was subjected to several large-scale attacks, leaving behind craters hundreds of kilometers long. Their consequences are being studied using the Hubble telescope and the Dawn spacecraft.

The largest crater is located in the southern part, its size is 460 km, and the rock formation along the perimeter rises 18 km. This rock was pushed out by an impact of colossal force, its height is twice that of Everest.

The huge crater, like all the others on the asteroid, is named after the famous Roman matron, it bears the name Rhea Silvia. Many other, smaller craters were also discovered here. Another structure on the surface indicates catastrophic impacts - a system of trenches at the equator. The longest one is called Divaliya, it has a length of 465 km and a depth of up to 5 km.

3D map of Vesta

Remnants of the disaster

The shape of the asteroid is close to spherical, since its uniformity was disrupted by a powerful collision with another celestial body more than 2 billion years ago. The fragments of Vesta left its surface and formed a family of class V asteroids. Their sizes are significantly smaller than the size of the main object and do not exceed 10 km in diameter. Scientists have calculated the number of these cosmic bodies, in 2005 it was 6051. Some meteorites circle in the space of the Universe, and those that fell on Earth brought important information about their ancestor Vesta.

Digital model of the Vesta asteroid

This is interesting

High reflective data made the asteroid one of the brightest celestial bodies. Vesta is visible to us without optical zoom. The asteroid is the same age solar system, and in geological composition it is close to the terrestrial planets. Studies by the Dawn space probe, which took place in 2011-2012, provided many images of the surface and made it possible to create it detailed map. Only after the device approached the asteroid were scientists able to calculate its exact mass.

>> Vesta

Vesta– a large asteroid of the belt between Mars and Jupiter: dimensions, mass, detection, the role of Kepler, Bode and Olbers, surface, composition, study with photos.

Vesta ranks second in terms of massiveness in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, second only to Ceres (belongs to the class dwarf planets). This is the brightest asteroid, so sometimes it can be found without the use of magnifying instruments. In 2011, Vesta was found by the Dawn device.

Sky Police and Asteroid Vesta

In 1596, Johannes Kepler calculated the elliptical shape of planetary orbits and found that there must be another planet between Mars and Jupiter. In 1772, mathematical calculations from Johann Bode were published that supported these conclusions. Interestingly, in 1789, several scientists created the “Heavenly Police” group, searching for the missing planet. Among them was Heinrich Olbers, who managed to discover the asteroid Pallas. In describing his theory, he indicated that Ceres and Pallas are capable of acting as fragments from a previously large planet. Check out the photo of the Vesta asteroid below.

Olbers believed that these fragments should intersect at the point of explosion and on the orbital path. He observed these points and on March 29, 1807 he noticed West. He became the first person to find two asteroids. The scientist sent his notes to Karl Gaus, who determined the orbit of Pallas in 10 hours.

Physical characteristics of the asteroid Vesta

Vesta is considered a unique asteroid due to its dark and bright spots, reminiscent of the lunar surface. There are basalt areas, which means lava flowed through them previously. The object has an irregular shape (flattened). Interestingly, the asteroid Vesta has a nearly circular orbit. Below are the size and rotation characteristics.

• Diameter: 530 km.
• Massiveness: 2.67 × 10 20 kg.
• Temperature range: -188°C to -18°C.
• Albedo: 0.4322.
• Rotation period: 5.342 hours.
• Orbital period: 3.63 years
• Aphelion: 2.57 AU
• Perihelion: 2.15 AU
• Closest approach to Earth: 1.14 AU

Surface, composition and formation of the asteroid Vesta

In 1996, Vesta approached Earth, and the Hubble Space Telescope was able to record its topography. surface layer along with the formations in the photo. A large crater appeared at the south pole with a diameter of 460 km (Vesta extends only 530 km). The crater goes 13 km deep and most likely appeared during an ancient impact. The shock ripped out material that was thrown into orbit and orbiting the asteroid.

Unlike other asteroids, the interior of asteroid Vesta is differentiated. That is, there is a crust of cooled lava, a rocky mantle and an iron-nickel core. This suggests that this is a protoplanet.

The core developed in the first 10 million years after the formation of the system. The basaltic crust also developed rapidly. Volcanic eruptions flowed from the mantle for 8-60 hours. Lava flows could spread for kilometers with a thickness of 5-20 m.

In 1960, a piece of Vesta flew over Australia. The fragment consisted entirely of pyroxene (found in lava flows) and carried the spectral signals of Vesta. In 2012, the Dawn spacecraft flew to the asteroid. A huge amount of hydrogen was detected on the surface. I also found bright areas with high reflectance. It is believed to have been created more than 4 billion years ago.

Visitors from asteroid Vesta

Vesta has a unique composition, making its meteorites easy to identify. These are HED objects, represented by eucrites (solidified lava), diogenites (from below the surface) and howardites (a mixture of both). A map of the Vesta asteroid shows more detail.

If Vesta's orbit is beyond Mars, how did the fragments reach Earth? Meteorites pass by Jupiter during three orbits around the Sun and feel the giant's pull.

Exploring the asteroid Vesta

In 2007, NASA launched the Dawn mission to visit Vesta and Ceres. This is a unique device, since it was the first time it traveled in two asteroid orbits at once. He arrived at Vesta in 2011, and at Ceres in 2015.

Dawn's goal is to study the characteristics of the early system through the analysis of two different asteroids. Ceres is humid, has seasonal polar caps, and is capable of a thin atmospheric layer. Vesta is a dry and rocky object.

In size, they are more like protoplanets, but Jupiter's gravity stopped their formation. In October 2010, the Hubble Telescope photographed Vesta again. The new data showed that the axle tilt is 4 degrees greater than earlier estimates.

A new frontier in the development of human civilization is the exploration of the vast and full of mysteries of space. We are taking thousands of steps towards clues, and one of them is the study of the asteroid Vesta, which has exceptional features compared to other celestial bodies.

Asteroid Vesta

It is one of the most massive objects in the vast asteroid belt stretching between Mars and Jupiter. One revolution around the Sun takes almost 4 years, around its own axis - 5 hours, and the acceleration of gravity is almost 5 times less than on Earth. The asteroid shares its name with the Roman goddess of the family hearth, Vesta. It received its name from the notorious Carl Gauss. By the way, Phaeton, which will be discussed later, was also named after a mythical god, and the first discovered asteroids were named only after the names of goddesses (for example, Vesta, Juno, Ceres, Pallas and others).

Vesta is the only asteroid that is visible naked eye from Earth (under normal weather conditions). This is facilitated by its bright surface, large size and ability to come relatively close to our planet. At the same time, its shape is far from ideal - round; Vesta did not have enough gravity to “polish” its surface.

Origin hypothesis

On March 29, 1807 (almost 200 years ago), Heinrich Olbers discovered the asteroid Vesta. Its brightness and suspected origin, incomparable to other celestial bodies in the asteroid belt, make it one of the most interesting objects to study.

The generally accepted version says that Vesta is a fragment of the planet Phaeton, which can now only be imagined: the entire asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is its fragments. But is this true?

At the end of the 18th century, German scientists discovered a pattern in the distances between the planets and the Sun. All known planets fell under the identified rule, with one exception: there seemed to be a gap between Mars and Jupiter - according to calculations, there should have been the orbit of another planet there. A few years later, astronomers found it, exactly in the place where it was supposed, and named it Ceres. But the story didn’t end there either. In subsequent years, four more large objects were discovered, including the asteroid Vesta, rotating in approximately the same orbit as Ceres. Heinrich Olbers, who discovered Vesta, became the founder of the hypothesis: next to Jupiter there used to be another planet, Phaethon, which fell into pieces.

Phaeton - a myth?

This idea was picked up by the world community and developed in various directions. In the last century, scientists calculated that Phaeton could have been almost 7,000 kilometers in diameter, making it even larger than Mars. The catastrophe is separated from the present by 16 million years.

On the other hand, all of the above are just hypotheses. The date is not exact, the causes of the cataclysm are controversial. Some say that the volcanoes were to blame, literally destroying the planet from the inside. Some argue that Phaeton was torn apart by centrifugal force; others are sure that if such a planet existed, it simply fell into pieces due to a collision with its own satellite. We’ll talk about the theory of alien intervention, which has no less followers, later.

But there are, as always happens with hypotheses, opponents of the very existence of Phaethon: the opposing theory says that the asteroid belt near Mars is not fragments, but pieces of a planet that failed to form (as the big bang theory says, all planets were once rarefied matter until, due to collapse, they formed into real objects).

In astrology

Along with other celestial bodies in astrology, the asteroid Vesta also has its own meaning. Astrologers define it as serving higher ideals, the desire not to create something new, but to renew and revive the old. In a negative sense - to block the road to renewal.

Vesta, Juno, Lada, Eros, Phaedra - all these are asteroids of the love series. Their main meaning is related to and reflects on the love life of a person. What does asteroid Vesta mean in the list of celestial bodies influencing you in the love series? That you will have to maintain chastity in the name of a higher goal, sacrifice your intimate life, and not always voluntarily.

At the same time, it is necessary to understand that individual asteroids do not have global significance in astrology; they can only be “shades”, only additional, specific sources of information.

Modern research

The Dawn space station was launched in 2007, and one of its probes explored the asteroid Vesta in 2011 and 2012, but the data has yet to be fully exploited. In 2016, a huge number of ice formations were discovered inside Ceres, which gave reason to look for them on Vesta. But the amount of H 2 on its surface is 100 times less, which did not give confidence in the presence of water on the asteroid.

In new studies using the same bistatic radar data, scientists have again taken up the question of the existence of ice on Vesta. Having received information about its surface in centimeter resolution, they noted the inconsistency of the properties and shape of the asteroid over the entire area and a little later established: yes, there is ice on Vesta. And it is precisely this that is the reason for such heterogeneity in the structure.

These future studies will help to understand how water is transported in space and how to prevent water shortages in arid regions on Earth.

Observations from Earth

As already mentioned, Vesta can be observed from Earth with the naked eye. This is best done during a confrontation.

During opposition, the observed object is exactly between the Earth and the Sun. The subject is fully illuminated and as close as possible. For example, on January 18, 2017, the asteroid Vesta approached the Earth by 229 million kilometers (which is a microscopic distance for space). Such an approach was possible precisely because of the confrontation. A photo of the Vesta asteroid is posted in the article.

Observations of the asteroid Vesta could be carried out in Moscow from 5 pm to 7 am. It was observed in the constellation Cancer with the naked eye.

Vesta was already observed in Australia in 1960. Moreover, fragments of an asteroid fell to Earth. The meteorites were discovered 10 years later, and based on their unusual structure and composition (pyroxene, which is usually found in lava), they were determined to belong to Vesta.

Asteroid Vesta - the birthplace of aliens?

More precisely, Phaeton. If such a planet really existed, then many are sure that there was life on it, moreover, intelligent life.

In one of the images sent by Dawn, you can see what appears to be a destroyed disk crashing into the surface of Vesta. All people's ideas about the means of transportation of aliens one way or another converge to "flying saucers." The object stuck into the asteroid is very similar to such a “plate”.

Of course, this theory quickly found a response among the people. One of the versions assumes the presence of a highly developed civilization that visited the Earth, the other - that the Phaetonians, in general, moved to it and became earthlings.

The phaeton was also used several times in literature: writers convince that the planet was destroyed directly by its inhabitants, starting a thermonuclear war.