Skip Navigation

Resources

Dark Areas in Cratered Terrain on Vesta

Dark Areas in Cratered Terrain on Vesta
Photojournal: PIA14953
Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Published: October 14, 2011

In this image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, a number of small dark areas, mostly clustered in the center and left of the image, are visible in asteroid Vesta's cratered landscape. A lot of these dark patches are small impact craters.

Related

The tip of the shadow of the moon Tethys is cut off where it crosses Saturn's B ring, demonstrating the variations in density across the planet's rings. Most of Tethys' shadow is seen lying across...
More
Tethys' shadow on Saturn's rings
Tethys' Truncated Shadow
A rare photo of a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere as seen from the International Space Station.
More
A rare photo of a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere as seen from the International Space Station.
Looking Down on a Shooting Star
The shadows of Saturn's rings edge ever farther southward as Saturn creeps towards southern winter (or northern summer). Saturn is now almost exactly halfway between its equinox (August 2009) and ...
More
Saturn
Halfway to Southern Winter
After climbing Husband Hill, Spirit spent more than four years exploring locations within this view, including the "Comanche" outcrop and the "Home Plate" area.
More
After climbing Husband Hill, Spirit spent more than four years exploring locations within this view, including the "Comanche" outcrop and the "Home Plate" area.
Spirit's View Southward from Husband Hill
Saturn’s unusual appearance in this picture is a result of the planet being imaged via an infrared filter.
More
Saturn
Darkness Descending
From now through mid-2006, it's Saturn time again. The planet Saturn returns to our early evening sky this month to the delight of stargazers everywhere. Saturn, the Jewel of the Solar System, rise...
More
Artist's rendition of four views of the moon as it will appear near Saturn.
Saturn and the Moon Dance This Weekend
Long-Range View
More
Long-Range View
Long-Range View
The graphic of Saturn depicts the actual magnetic field lines of the planetary magnetic field created deep within Saturn's core. It also depicts the exact alignment of the dipole axis and the rotat...
More
Saturn's magnetic field lines
Saturn's magnetic field lines
This view shows the southwestern rim of 106-mile-wide (170-kilometer-wide) Urvara crater on Ceres.In the crater's center is a prominent double peak. NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained the image on Oct...
More
Dawn HAMO Image 71
Dawn HAMO Image 71
Cassini Aims High in Upcoming Titan Flyby Cassini's next close flyby of Titan will be on Saturday, Sept. 23. This will be one of Cassini's closest flybys yet of Titan, at just 960 kilometers (600 ...
More
Artist rendition of Titan flyby, Sept. 23, 2006
Titan Flyby - Sept. 23, 2006
                  Bold Saturn August 19, 2004   Full-Res: PIA06423   Saturn's atmosphere is prominently shown with th...
More
Bold Saturn
Bold Saturn
Smoke plume from California's Rim Fire, Aug. 23, 2013.
More
Satellite image of smoke plume from the 2013 Rim Fire in California
Smoke Plumes From Space
                  Saturn's Rings, Cold and Colder September 2, 2004   Full-Res: PIA06425   The varying temperatures of Sat...
More
Saturn's Rings, Cold and Colder
Saturn's Rings, Cold and Colder
This image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the NASA Planetary Data System in 2012. For more information on raw images check out our Freque...
More
Enceladus
Enceladus (Raw Image 1)
This image shows a region in Saturn's outer B ring. NASA's Cassini spacecraft viewed this area at a level of detail twice as high as it had ever been observed before.
More
Black and white close up image of Saturn's B ring.
Straw in the B Ring's Edge
Los Angeles Basin bordered on the north by the San Gabriel Mountians. ASTER's simulated natural color image, collected Aug 15, 2006, is draped over the ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model.
More
Simulated image of the Los Angeles Basin
Top that Topo Map
Saturn's moon Rhea is an alien ice world, but in this frame-filling view it is vaguely familiar. Here, Rhea's cratered surface looks in some ways similar to our own Moon, or the planet Mercury. Bu...
More
This is an image of Saturn's moon Rhea
Frame-Filling Rhea
Viewed nearly edge-on, Saturn's rings appear dark and pencil-thin against the backdrop of the planet's swirling clouds. Notable here are the shadows cast by the rings onto the northern hemisphere,...
More
Saturn, its rings, and the rings' shadows
Southern Face of Saturn
Dwarfed by Storms November 19, 2004 Full-Res: PIA06524 Tiny Mimas is dwarfed by a huge white storm and dark waves on the edge of a...
More
Dwarfed by Storms
Dwarfed by Storms
This very deep combined image shows the interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua at the center of the image.
More
Image of small dot in a field of stars.
Telescope Image of 'Oumuamua
The Cassini spacecraft looks toward the bright linea -- geologically fresh-looking, icy canyons -- on Dione. This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere of Dione (1126 kilometers, or 700 miles ...
More
Dione
Cracked Marble
+ Original version + Image with labels   With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the sun's blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before,...
More
Color-exagerated view of Saturn and its rings
In Saturn's Shadow (Color-exaggerated view)
Janus skirts the edges of Saturn's main rings. The Cassini spacecraft has shown that this small moon and its co-orbital companion, Epimetheus, also share their orbit with a diffuse ring of fine par...
More
Janus skirts the edges of Saturn's main rings
A True 'Ring Moon'
This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows a portion of the southern hemisphere of dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The image was taken on Sept. 21, 2015...
More
Dawn HAMO Image 43
Dawn HAMO Image 43
Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the moon near a leg of the Lunar Module during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA).
More
Buzz Aldrin on the moon
Apollo 11 Buzz Aldrin

You Might Also Like

In commemoration of NASA’s 50th anniversary of the lunar landing and in celebration of September’s National Literacy Month, McDonald’s and Peanuts partnered to create space-themed toys and STEM-focused books.
More
Peanuts Toys and Books Commemorate 50th Anniversary of Apollo
Peanuts Toys and Books Commemorate 50th Anniversary of Apollo
NASA is asking industry to respond to a Request for Proposals to deliver cargo, science experiments and supplies to the Gateway to support Artemis missions to the lunar surface.
More
NASA Asks American Companies to Deliver Supplies for Artemis Moon Missions
NASA Asks American Companies to Deliver Supplies for Artemis Moon Missions
Europa Clipper will explore Jupiter's icy moon in-depth during multiple flybys, studying whether Europa could harbor conditions suitable for life.
More
Europa Clipper's Mission to Jupiter's Icy Moon Confirmed
Europa Clipper's Mission to Jupiter's Icy Moon Confirmed
If our eyes could see high-energy radiation called gamma rays, the Moon would appear brighter than the Sun! That’s how NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has seen our neighbor in space for the past decade.
More
Moon Glows Brighter Than Sun in Images From NASA's Fermi
Moon Glows Brighter Than Sun in Images From NASA's Fermi
NASA has selected two proposals to demonstrate small satellite technologies to improve science observations in deep space, which could help NASA develop better models to predict space weather events that can affect astronauts and spacecraft.
More
NASA Selects Proposals to Demonstrate SmallSat Technologies to Study Interplanetary Space
NASA Selects Proposals to Demonstrate SmallSat Technologies to Study Interplanetary Space
The bit carousel, which lies at the heart of the rover's Sample Caching System, is now aboard NASA's newest rover.
More
Robotic Toolkit Added to NASA's Mars 2020 Rover
Robotic Toolkit Added to NASA's Mars 2020 Rover