Asteroids, often overlooked, hold vital clues about our solar system's formation and potential future. Missions like ...

Scientists at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, discover a new trans-Neptune Object, 2017OF201, potentially discrediting 2016 theory of Planet Nine.

Asteroid Vesta, once thought to be a protoplanet that had been left behind in its formation, is now the subject of a groundbreaking investigation of what may be a remnant of a far larger planet ...

In 2016, Park used the same data types as the Vesta study to focus on Dawn's second target, the dwarf planet Ceres, and results suggested a partially differentiated interior.

Vesta had been thought to have been the last protoplanet, a leftover remnant from the early days of our solar system that never quite made it as a fully fledged planet for some reason. As the ...

Vesta, thought to be the second-largest asteroid in the solar system, could be a piece of an ancient, unknown planet, a new study hints.

Their analysis has now revealed that Vesta has no core at all and that its interior does not resemble that of a planet. At the same time, however, unlike on asteroids, there is volcanic basalt there.

Alternatively, Jacobson explains, it is conceivable that Vesta is a chunk that broke off of a growing planet in our solar system as the result of a collision billions of years ago.

Pluto was demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006. So why is its status still so controversial today? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Vesta, the second largest object in the main asteroid belt, has an iron core, a varied surface, layers of rock and possibly a magnetic field -- all signs of a planet in the making, not an asteroid.