10/13/2026
Bright asteroid Vesta close and shiny — see it in binoculars
On Oct. 12-13, the asteroid Vesta arrives at opposition, when it lines up with Earth on the same side of the sun and comes closest to Earth for the year. It's also brightest. The stony orb shines near Saturn and rises around sunset.
Vesta, with a diameter of about 330 miles, is the second largest main belt asteroid and orbits between Mars and Jupiter. NASA sent the Dawn spacecraft to study it up close from July 2011 to September 2012. We discovered that Vesta is a proto-planet. Long ago, it separated internally into layers like planets do with an iron-nickel core, mantle and rocky crust. But it never grew large enough to reach planethood.
Astronomers were also able to study its minerology from orbit and match its composition to certain meteorites found on Earth. These fragments of Vesta, one of which is pictured here, were likely expelled in an impact that ultimately brought them to Earth.
Vesta is at it brightest in mid-October at magnitude 6.5, just below the naked-eye limit. Binoculars will easily show it as a "star" slowly moving westward across Cetus. To find it, start at Saturn, then star-hop downward along the suggested (arrowed) path. Carefully eliminate the stars of similar brightness near the asteroid to pick out Vesta, identified by the yellow dots. Once you've found Vesta you can track its westward movement over the coming nights.
Photos show a slice of the Vestan meteorite NWA 2724 and a short movie of Vesta up close from NASA's Dawn.
