Skip Navigation
menu close modal

Resources

Ejecta from Vesta's 'Snowman' Craters

Ejecta from Vesta's 'Snowman' Craters
Photojournal: PIA15086
Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Published: November 21, 2011

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows ejecta from two of the large "Snowman" craters on the left of the image. This ejecta smooths out asteroid Vesta's surface in the rest of the image.

ENLARGE

Related

Launched on March 2, 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. 
More
Rocket launching at night.
Pioneer 10 Launch
The ghostly spokes in Saturn's B ring continue to put on a show for the Cassini spacecraft cameras in this recent image. The spokes, believed to be a seasonal phenomenon, are expected to disappear ...
More
Spokes in Saturn's B ring
Still Active Spokes
This dramatic close-up of Tethys shows the large crater Penelope lying near center, overprinted by many smaller, younger impact sites. Three smaller impact features of roughly similar size make ...
More
A close-up of Tethys showing the large crater Penelope
Penelope Crater
This illustration is a representation of the interior of Saturn's moon Enceladus with a global liquid water ocean between its rocky core and icy crust.
More
Illustration of the interior of Saturn's moon Enceladus showing a global liquid water ocean between its rocky core and icy crust.
Global Ocean on Enceladus (Artist's Rendering)
This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, taken Dec. 19, 2015, shows part of Messor Crater, at northern mid-latitudes on Ceres. The scene shows an older crater in which a large lobe-shaped flow partl...
More
Messor Crater from LAMO
Messor Crater from LAMO
The Cassini spacecraft looks at a brightly illuminated Enceladus and examines the surface of the leading hemisphere of this Saturnian moon.
More
Enceladus
Brilliant Enceladus
The Cassini spacecraft captures a couple of small moons in this image taken while the spacecraft was nearly in the plane of Saturn's rings. Near the top of this image, a crescent Mimas (396 kilome...
More
Mimas, Pan and Saturn's rings
Mimas and Pan
The Cassini spacecraft takes a detailed look at the northern part of the huge Odysseus Crater on Saturn's moon Tethys. The crater dominates the left half of this view of Tethys (660 miles, or 1,06...
More
The Cassini spacecraft takes a detailed look at the northern part of the huge Odysseus Crater on Saturn's moon Tethys.
Northern Odysseus
This video describes a computer model that proposes a flow vortex in Saturn's upper atmosphere or ionosphere can explain periodic signatures observed by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in Saturn's magnet...
More
Video shows different views of the interaction of Saturn's magnetosphere with the solar wind
Diagnosing Saturn's Magnetic Pulse
This global digital map of Saturn's moon Dione was created using data taken during Cassini and Voyager spacecraft flybys. The map is an equidistant projection and has a scale of 977 meters (3,205 f...
More
Map of Dione
Map of Dione - December 2005
The moon Iapetus, like the "force" in Star Wars, has both a light side and a dark side.
More
The moon Iapetus
Path to the Dark Side
This composite image shows a mosaic of the European Space Agency's Huygens probe landing site, as seen by the descent imager/spectral radiometer on the Huygens probe. The mosaic is overlaid on a C...
More
Huygen's view of Titan
Huygens Landing Site
This view, taken on Oct. 26, 2016, from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows Meanderi Crater on Ceres, seen at lower right. Meanderi hosts several medium-sized craters within its walls.
More
Dawn XMO2 Image 28
Dawn XMO2 Image 28
This close pairing of Janus and Epimetheus shows the two moons at "high phase," meaning that only a thin sliver of sunlit terrain is visible on each moon. Portions of each are also lit feebly by re...
More
Janus and Epimetheus
Dim Duo
This image of asteroid Vesta from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a particularly smooth part of the giant asteroid's surface, likely covered in fine-grained regolith material.
More
Smooth, Grooved Surface
Smooth, Grooved Surface
From the dark side of Titan, the Cassini spacecraft profiles the moon's atmosphere as sunlight filters through its upper hazes. An airless satellite would appear in this viewing geometry only as a...
More
Two views of the Saturn-facing side of Titan
Hazy Ring of Titan's Sky
This picture from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a network of canyon-like features near the center of Ezinu Crater on Ceres. Ezinu measures about 72 miles (116 kilometers) in diameter and was named f...
More
Dawn LAMO Image 95
Dawn LAMO Image 95
This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Oct. 17, 2016, captures the day-night boundary, or terminator, in the north polar region of Ceres. The north pole itself, which lies just slightly lef...
More
Dawn XMO2 Image 32
Dawn XMO2 Image 32
These four images are among thousands NEAR Shoemaker acquired during several low-altitude passes over Eros from January 25-28, 2001.
More
These four images are among thousands NEAR Shoemaker acquired during several low-altitude passes over Eros from January 25-28, 2001.
Closing in on Eros
Ceres' densely cratered landscape is revealed in this image taken by the framing camera aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft. The craters show various degrees of degradation. The youngest craters have sha...
More
Dawn LAMO Image 84
Dawn LAMO Image 84
+ Annotated version Five images of Saturn's rings, taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft between 2009 and 2012, show clouds of material ejected from impacts of small objects into the rings. Clockwise...
More
Five images of Saturn's rings
Meteors Meet Saturn's Rings
The most prominent jets of vapor and icy particles emerging from the south polar terrain of Saturn’s moon Enceladus are shown here in graphical form in a movie clip of a “rotating” Enceladus. A ...
More
Enceladus' Jets
Enceladus' Jets
These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in asteroid Vesta's Marcia quadrangle, a few degrees below Vesta's equator. Octavia Crater looks remarkably like a terrestrial landslide.
More
HAMO and LAMO Images of Octavia Crater
HAMO and LAMO Images of Octavia Crater
This map from NASA's Dawn mission indicates the presence of hydrated minerals on the giant asteroid Vesta about 30 degrees north latitude, in August 2011. At the time, it was winter in Vesta's nort...
More
Map of Hydrated Minerals on Vesta
Map of Hydrated Minerals on Vesta
Saturn's surface is painted with swirls and shadows. Each swirl here is a weather system, reminding us of how dynamic Saturn's atmosphere is.
More
Saturn's surface
Swirls and Shadows

You Might Also Like