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A. Rosenberg, A. Storrs (Towson U.), J.-M. Conan (ONERA), D.W. McCarthy (U. of Arizona), R.P. Binzel (MIT ), J. Drummond (Phillips Lab.), M. Gaffey (U. of N. Dakota), K. Hege, L. Lebofsky (U. of Arizona), P. Thomas (Cornell), E. Wells (CSC/STScI), B. Zellner (Ga. Southern U.)
Asteroid 4 Vesta is the third largest asteroid and parent body of the V-type asteroids. As the parent body of the basaltic achondrite meteorites, it can provide important insight into the early solar system. We present preliminary work on a global mineralogical map of Vesta, overlain on an existing surface topography model, which was sampled at a resolution of 5 degrees latitude/longitude. This map was produced using 1 to 2 micron bandpass images obtained from the NICMOS camera of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1997. Images were deconvolved using the MISTRAL routine (Conan, et al. 2000, The Messenger 99, p. 58), resulting in a four times resolution improvement over raw images. From this map, a global distribution of the minerals (in particular olivene and pyroxene) can be obtained. Specifically an investigation into the southern polar region will be performed. The recently discovered large impact crater in this region is likely to yield information regarding the mineralogy of Vesta's subsurface.
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