The Deep Space 1 spacecraft, which passed the newly-named asteroid Braille last week, has provided scientists with surprising information about the asteroid's composition, linking the tiny, irregularly-shaped Braille with one of the largest bodies in the asteroid belt, and to meteorites collected on Earth.

Data returned by the Deep Space 1's spectrographic camera shows that Braille is composed of the same elements as the giant asteroid Vesta, which orbits the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, project scientists announced today from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The finding is notable because Braille and Vesta are in completely different orbits, and previously seemed to have no connection to one another. Braille is in an eccentric orbit that passes inside the orbit of Mars. Its own unique chemical composition is shared by about 6 percent of the meteorites found on Earth, leading scientists to conclude that the two asteroids and the meteorites share a common origin.

"This is sort of like winning the triple crown," said Deep Space 1's project scientist Bob Nelson. "It is often said a picture is worth a thousand words, well in this case, a spectrum is worth a thousand pictures. "

The spacecraft didn't get any good pictures of Braille. In fact, it almost completely missed the tiny, tumbling rock, because it had trouble finding it. Braille is an oblong asteroid that measures only 1.5 miles (2.2 kilometers) from end to end. Larry Soderblom leader of the camera-spectrometer group for the Deep Space 1 science team compared its shape to an oddly twisted carnival balloon -- the kind used by clowns and magicians.

So small is Braille, that the spacecraft's cameras couldn't even detect it until two days before closest approach. When the spacecraft's computer did find the rock, it was about 250 miles (400 kilometers) away from where it had been calculated to be, Soderblom said. This sent mission controllers scrambling to aim the craft's scientific instruments back at the dim little asteroid. They accomplished this in the nick of time, but only as the craft was speeding away from Braille.

The discovery that Braille and Vesta are composed of such similar material is leading scientists to speculate that Braille, and other similarly-composed asteroids in the asteroid belt, are in fact parts of Vesta. Dan Britt, a geologist at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville who is a member of the Deep Space 1 science team, said in an interview with space.com that it is "pretty certain" that Braille and Vesta share the same origin.

Vesta is a nearly spherical asteroid with a complex geologic history similar to that of the inner planets. Its surface is composed of basaltic rock that scientists believe was flowed from a molten interior.

"Vesta is by far the largest (asteroid) with this particular (chemical) signature," Britt said. "And the others are small enough that they could arguably be fragments of Vesta."

The fragments could have been smashed off Vesta in a violent collision with another asteroid, Britt said. He said it is unlikely that Vesta and Braille each came from some larger parent body because the surface of Vesta has such a consistent composition. If Vesta had been a fragment of some larger body, it would show much greater variation, with large regions of its surface showing signs of having formed under different conditions -- not surface volcanism.

Vesta even wears a scar -- a large impact crater that resulted from a violent collision. That catastrophic crash could have ejected material that millions of years afterward has found its way to earth as meteorites and into the inner solar system where Braille orbits.

The successful analysis of Braille's composition is a noteworthy step toward understanding the history of asteroids and the solar system, Britt said. Out of some 11,000 named asteroids, scientists understand the composition of only about 5 percent, he said.

This scientific work is a big bonus for Deep Space 1. The mission's primary objective was not really to study the asteroid at all, but to test a suite of experimental technology, including ion propulsion and autonomous navigation. Braille was chosen almost at random, Britt said, because the mission needed a target.

Having demonstrated the validity of much of that technology, the spacecraft's primary mission is over, but it may get a second life.

NASA could decide to extend the mission for another two years. Deep Space 1 is already aimed to pass by two comets in 2001. If its mission is extended, the craft will be able to study those comets, one of which may be evolving into an asteroid -- a process which scientists know very little about.