Which asteroid was visited by the Dawn spacecraft and is one of the brightest bodies seen from Earth in the belt between Mars and Jupiter?

• A. Ceres
• B. Vesta
• C. Hygiea
• D. Pallas

Answer: (B)

Dawn’s mission was designed to study two of the largest bodies in the asteroid belt to learn about the building blocks of the solar system. It visited Vesta first, then Ceres. Vesta stands out as one of the brightest objects seen from Earth in that belt because its large size and high reflectivity make it highly visible despite being in the asteroid belt. While Ceres is also in the belt and was explored by Dawn, it doesn’t appear as bright as Vesta, and Hygiea and Pallas are generally fainter. So the asteroid described is Vesta.