Skip Navigation
menu close modal

Resources

Dawn Orbiting Vesta

Dawn Orbiting Vesta
Photojournal: PIA15174
Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Published: December 12, 2011
This artist's concept shows NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbiting the giant asteroid Vesta. The depiction of Vesta is based on images obtained by Dawn's framing cameras.

ENLARGE

Related

This is a raw, or unprocessed, image taken by the Cassini spacecraft during its close flyby of Saturn's moon Iapetus on Sept. 10, 2007.
More
Iapetus
Iapetus -- raw image
This enhanced-color mosaic of Saturn's icy moon Tethys shows a range of features on the moon's trailing hemisphere. 
More
This enhanced-color mosaic of Saturn's icy moon Tethys shows a range of features on the moon's trailing hemisphere.
The Colors of Tethys I
This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a sinuous canyon in the southern hemisphere of Ceres, south of Yalode Crater.
More
Dawn LAMO Image 56
Dawn LAMO Image 56
Swirling clouds drift like phantoms in Saturn's murky depths. The camera filter used for this image captures light at wavelengths where atmospheric gases like methane are fairly transparent, allow...
More
Swirling clouds in Saturn's murky depths
Beneath the Haze
This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows the surface of dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The image, with a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixe...
More
Dawn HAMO Image 23
Dawn HAMO Image 23
This image of Lepida AV-L-14, from the atlas of the giant asteroid Vesta, was created from images taken as NASA's Dawn mission flew around the object, also known as a protoplanet.
More
Lepida AV-L-14
Lepida AV-L-14
A single image from the Huygens DISR instrument of a dark plain area on Titan, seen during descent to the landing site, that indicates flow around bright 'islands'. The areas below and above the br...
More
Black and white image of bright spots on the surface of Titan seen from above.
Possible 'Islands' on a Dark Plain
This low elevation image shows the G ring arc recently discovered by Cassini. This faint arc of material is maintained by a gravitational interaction with the moon Mimas. The image was taken in vi...
More
The G ring arc
Lost Arc
The Cassini spacecraft spots a couple of large, wedge-shaped spokes in Saturn's B ring. These spokes are similar in appearance to those seen by the Voyager spacecraft (see Saturn's rings - high r...
More
Spokes in Saturn's B ring
Like Spokes of Old
This image mosaic, showing Eros' saddle and a shadowed feature to its left, was taken on March 3, 2000 from a distance of 204 kilometers (127 miles).
More
Black and white picture of shadowed feature on asteroid Eros
Glimpses into Eros' Shadows
The Cassini spacecraft spots the irregularly shaped icy moon Janus as it swings around Saturn. This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 8 degrees above the ringplane. ...
More
Saturn's rings and Janus
Janus in View
Probe Landing on Titan
More
Probe Landing on Titan
Probe Landing on Titan
Hemispheric color differences on Saturn's moon Rhea are apparent in this false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. This image shows the side of the moon that always faces the planet. In thi...
More
A false-color view of Rhea
False-Color Rhea
This map of the surface of Saturn's moon Iapetus (1,436 kilometers, or 892 miles across), generated from images taken by NASA's Voyager spacecraft, illustrates the imaging coverage planned during C...
More
Black and white map detailing where Cassini's instruments will be focused.
Iapetus' New Year's Flyby
In this extremely narrow angle field-of-view artist's rendering Iapetus, with its notable dark surface, occupies the foreground with a dimly lit crescent Saturn low in the sky. Iapetus' surface sh...
More
Iapetus' Dark Surface
Iapetus' Dark Surface
This radar image shows the entire scene in which hydrocarbon lakes were first discovered on Titan, near its north pole (see Lakes on Titan). This image was acquired on July 22, 2006, by Cassini's ...
More
A radar image of hydrocarbon lakes near Titan's north pole
Titan (T16) Viewed by Cassini's Radar July 22, 2006
Cassini's best close-up view of Saturn's F ring shepherd moon, Pandora, shows that this small ring-moon is coated in fine dust-sized icy material.
More
Pandora
Pandora's Color Close-up
NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this false-color image of asteroid Vesta's equatorial region with its framing camera on July 25, 2011.
More
False-Color Image of Vesta's Equatorial Region
False-Color Image of Vesta's Equatorial Region
Prometheus draws a fresh streamer of material from the F ring as it passes the ring's interior edge. The streamer will continuously shear out as it orbits the planet, becoming more elongated and in...
More
Prometheus draws a fresh streamer of material from the F ring
Streamer Genesis
Prometheus interacts gravitationally with the inner flanking ringlets of the F ring, creating dark channels as it passes. This image was taken in a complete azimuthal scan of the rings, during whi...
More
Prometheus and Saturn's rings
Moon and Its Handiwork
This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows impact ejecta deposits dominating asteroid Vesta's landscape. This impact ejecta material was ejected from an impact crater located outside the imaged a...
More
Impact Ejecta Deposits Covering Underlying Topography
Impact Ejecta Deposits Covering Underlying Topography
This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft of asteroid Vesta shows a long chain of craters in the right part of the image, located in Vesta's Caparronia quadrangle, in Vesta's northern hemisphere.
More
Chain of Craters
Chain of Craters
Saturn's fourth-largest moon, Dione, can be seen through the haze of the planet's largest moon, Titan, in this view of the two posing before the planet and its rings from NASA's Cassini spacecraft....
More
Titan, Dione, Saturn and its rings
Titan and Dione
This raw, unprocessed image of Saturn's moon Enceladus was taken during Cassini's Nov. 6, 2011, flyby which passed within about 300 miles (500 kilometers) of the moon's surface. This encounter wa...
More
Enceladus
Enceladus Flyby E-16 (Raw Image #4)
MESSENGER's Earth flyby on Aug. 2, 2005, not only adjusted the spacecraft's path to Mercury - the gravity assist maneuver allowed the spacecraft team to test several MESSENGER science instruments b...
More
MESSENGER's Earth flyby on Aug. 2, 2005, not only adjusted the spacecraft's path to Mercury - the gravity assist maneuver allowed the spacecraft team to test several MESSENGER science instruments by observing its home planet.
Twins Image

You Might Also Like