Vesta is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of 525 kilometres. It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after Vesta, the virgin goddess of home and hearth from Roman mythology. Vesta is the second-most-massive and the second-largest asteroid, after the dwarf planet Ceres, contributes an estimated 9% of the mass of the asteroid belt, it is slightly larger than Pallas, but is about 25% more massive. Vesta is the only known remaining rocky protoplanet of the kind. Numerous fragments of Vesta were ejected by collisions one and two billion years ago that left two enormous craters occupying much of Vesta's southern hemisphere. Debris from these events has fallen to Earth as howardite–eucrite–diogenite meteorites, which have been a rich source of information about Vesta. Vesta is the brightest asteroid visible from Earth, its maximum distance from the Sun is greater than the minimum distance of Ceres from the Sun, though its orbit lies within that of Ceres.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft entered orbit around Vesta on 16 July 2011 for a one-year exploration and left orbit on 5 September 2012 en route to its final destination, Ceres. Researchers continue to examine data collected by Dawn for additional insights into the formation and history of Vesta. Heinrich Olbers discovered Pallas in the year after the discovery of Ceres, he proposed. He sent a letter with his proposal to the English astronomer William Herschel, suggesting that a search near the locations where the orbits of Ceres and Pallas intersected might reveal more fragments; these orbital intersections were located in the constellations of Virgo. Olbers commenced his search in 1802, on 29 March 1807 he discovered Vesta in the constellation Virgo—a coincidence, because Ceres and Vesta are not fragments of a larger body; because the asteroid Juno had been discovered in 1804, this made Vesta the fourth object to be identified in the region, now known as the asteroid belt. The discovery was announced in a letter addressed to German astronomer Johann H. Schröter dated 31 March.

Because Olbers had credit for discovering a planet, he gave the honor of naming his new discovery to German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, whose orbital calculations had enabled astronomers to confirm the existence of Ceres, the first asteroid, who had computed the orbit of the new planet in the remarkably short time of 10 hours. Gauss decided on the Roman virgin goddess of Vesta. Vesta was the fourth asteroid to be discovered, hence the number 4 in its formal designation; the name Vesta, or national variants thereof, is in international use with two exceptions: Greece and China. In Greek, the name adopted was the Hellenic equivalent of Hestia. In Chinese, Vesta is called the'hearth-god star', 灶神星 zàoshénxīng, naming the asteroid for Vesta's role rather than transliterating her name into Chinese, as is done with other bodies discovered in modern times, including Uranus and Pluto. Upon its discovery, Vesta was, like Ceres and Juno before it, classified as a planet and given a planetary symbol.

The symbol was designed by Gauss. In Gauss's conception, this was drawn. After the discovery of Vesta, no further objects were discovered for 38 years, the Solar System was thought to have eleven planets. However, in 1845, new asteroids started being discovered at a rapid pace, by 1851 there were fifteen, each with its own symbol, in addition to the eight major planets, it soon became clear that it would be impractical to continue inventing new planetary symbols indefinitely, some of the existing ones proved difficult to draw quickly. That year, the problem was addressed by Benjamin Apthorp Gould, who suggested numbering asteroids in their order of discovery, placing this number in a disk as the generic symbol of an asteroid. Thus, the fourth asteroid, acquired the generic symbol ④; this was soon coupled with the name into an official number–name designation, ④ Vesta, as the number of minor planets increased. By 1858, the circle had been simplified to parentheses, which were easier to typeset.

Other punctuation, such as 4) Vesta and 4, was used, but had more or less died out by 1949. Today, either Vesta, or, more 4 Vesta, is used. Photometric observations of Vesta were made at the Harvard College Observatory in 1880–1882 and at the Observatoire de Toulouse in 1909; these and other observations allowed the rotation rate of Vesta to be determined by the 1950s. However, the early estimates of the rotation rate came into question because the light curve included variations in both shape and albedo. Early estimates of the diameter of Vesta ranged from 383 to 444 km. E. C. Pickering produced an estimated diameter of 513±17 km in 1879, close to the modern value for the mean diameter, but the subsequent estimates ranged from a low of 390 km up to a high of 602 km during the next century; the measured estimates were based on photometry. In 1989, speckle interferometry was used to measure a dimension that varied between 498 and 548 km during the rotational period. In 1991, an occultation of the star SAO 93228 by Vesta was observed from multiple loca

Dame Mildred Betty Ridley DBE was a leading figure in the life of the Church of England from the 1960s into the 1980s, serving as Third Church Estates Commissioner from 1972 until 1981, the first woman to hold the post. Ridley was the daughter of his wife Mildred Willis, her father, was Rector of Poplar, London. He was in 1919 appointed Bishop of Stepney and, in 1928 Bishop of Southwell, she was educated at the independent North London Collegiate School and at Cheltenham Ladies' College. She married Michael Ridley, her father's chaplain at the age of 19. Michael Ridley became incumbent of parishes in Finchley, he died at an early age in 1953. Ridley believed that women should be accepted as candidates for Holy Orders.. She took many opportunities to forward this cause. Before her husband died, she was elected to the Anglican Church Assembly and joined the Council for Woman's Work, she played a major part in settling the structures of the Assembly's successor body, the General Synod. For the ten years of its existence, she was at the heart of the new Synod.

She served for 25 years on the Central Board of Finance and she was a member "the first woman to be appointed" of the Advisory Council for the Training of the Ministry. In 1979, she was a founding member of the Movement for the Ordination of Women. In 1982, she chaired the Crown Appointments Commission that led to the appointment of John Habgood as Archbishop of York. From 1959 to 1981 she was a Church Commissioner, active on various committees. In 1972, Archbishop Michael Ramsey appointed her to succeed Sir Hubert Ashton as Third Church Estates Commissioner, the first woman to hold the post, which she held until 1981. Ridley was a member of The Bach Choir for most of her adult life and sang under Reginald Jacques and David Willcocks, she took part in the television programme Evensong, shown in the BBC's Everyman series in December 1992. Margaret Duggan "Obituary - Dame Betty Ridley",'The Guardian, 4 August 2005

Jacobus Gijsbert "Koos" Rietkerk was a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and jurist. Rietkerk attended the Christian Gymnasium in Haarlem from April 1940 until May 1946 and applied at the Leiden University in June 1946 majoring in Law and obtaining an Bachelor of Laws degree in June 1948 and worked as a student researcher before graduating with an Master of Laws degree in July 1952. Rietkerk worked as a lawyer in Haarlem from January 1953 until October 1956 and worked as a civil servant for the Immigration and Naturalisation Service of the Ministry of Justice from January 1953 until October 1956. Rietkerk worked as legal advisor for the Municipalities association from October 1956 until January 1959. Rietkerk worked as a trade association executive for the Christian Employers' association and served as General-Secretary of the Executive Board from January 1959 until February 1967. Rietkerk was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the election of 1967, taking office on 23 February 1967 serving as a frontbencher and spokesperson for Justice, Social Affairs and the Ombudsman.

After the election of 1971 Rietkerk was appointed as State Secretary for Social Affairs in the Cabinet Biesheuvel I, taking office on 28 July 1971. The Cabinet Biesheuvel I fell just one year on 19 July 1972 and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity until the first cabinet formation of 1972 when it was replaced by the caretaker Cabinet Biesheuvel II with Scholten continuing as State Secretary for Finance, taking office on 9 August 1972. After the election of 1972 Rietkerk returned as a Member of the House of Representatives, taking office on 23 January 1973 but he was still serving in the cabinet and because of dualism customs in the constitutional convention of Dutch politics he couldn't serve a dual mandate he subsequently resigned as State Secretary for Social Affairs on 23 April 1973 and he continued to serve in the House of Representatives as a frontbencher and spokesperson for Justice, Social Affairs and the Ombudsman. In August 1973 Rietkerk was nominated as General-Secretary of the Executive Board of the Industry and Employers' association, he resigned as a Member of the House of Representatives the same day he was installed as General-Secretary on 1 September 1973.

Rietkerk returned as a Member of the House of Representatives following the appointment of Henk Vonhoff as Mayor of Utrecht, he resigned as General-Secretary of the Industry and Employers' association on 1 September 1974 taking office on 11 September 1974 again serving as a frontbencher and spokesperson for Justice, Social Affairs and the Ombudsman. After the election of 1977 the Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and Parliamentary leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the House of Representatives Hans Wiegel was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior in the Cabinet Van Agt-Wiegel, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy leadership approached Rietkerk as his successor as Parliamentary leader, Rietkerk accepted and became the Parliamentary leader, taking office on 19 December 1977. After the election of 1981 Wiegel returned as Parliamentary leader on 25 August 1981 and he again served as a frontbencher chairing the parliamentary committee for Kingdom Relations and the parliamentary committee for the Ombudsman.

After the election of 1982 Rietkerk was appointed as Minister of the Interior in the Cabinet Lubbers I, taking office on 4 November 1982. On 20 February 1986 Rietkerk died after suffering a fatal Heart attack during a meeting in his office at the Ministry of the Interior at the age of 58. Rietkerk was known for his abilities as a negotiator, he holds the distinction as the second longest-serving Parliamentary leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the House of Representatives who wasn't the Leader with 3 years, 249 days. Official Mr. J. G. Rietkerk Parlement & Politiek