Universe → Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex → Laniakea Supercluster → Virgo Supercluster → Local Group → Milky Way Galaxy → Orion-Cygnus Arm → Gould Belt → Local Bubble → Local Interstellar Cloud → Solar System → Asteroid belt → Vesta
Vesta is a very large asteroid orbiting within the asteroid belt in our Solar System. It is the second most massive asteroid in the Solar System, second to Ceres, which is also considered a dwarf planet; with the third most massive asteroid Pallas being slightly smaller in radius but significantly less massive.
It is currently an object in the asteroid belt close to being considered a planemo due to its roughly oblate spheroidal shape (Ceres is a planemo, Pallas is irregular in shape), and also the only known surviving protoplanet of the kind that formed the terrestrial planets. Vesta is thought to have formerly been a planemo and dwarf planet but deviated due to massive impacts that formed the Rheasilvia and Veneneia craters on its surface.[1]
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| Object | Inner Solar System | Outer Solar System | Scattered Disc | Extended Scattered Disc-Oort Cloud | ||||||||||||||||||
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Mercury | Venus |
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Mars
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Jupiter | Saturn | Uranus
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Neptune
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Minor planet
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Comet Halley |
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Comet Hale-Bopp | |||||||||||||||||