Skip Navigation

Resources

Latest Image of Vesta captured by Dawn on July 17, 2011

Latest Image of Vesta captured by Dawn on July 17, 2011
Photojournal: PIA14313
Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Published: July 18, 2011

This is the first image obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft after successfully entering orbit around Vesta.

ENLARGE

Related

Saturn's moon Enceladus, imaged at high phase, shows off its spectacular water ice plumes emanating from its south polar region. This image was captured at a phase, or sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, an...
More
Water ice plumes emanating from Enceladus' south polar region
High-Phase Plumes
At first glance, it seems Epimetheus is the lone moon orbiting Saturn in this image, but a closer inspection reveals a couple of companions in the rings. Circling brightly outside the rings in the...
More
At first glance, it seems Epimetheus is the lone moon orbiting Saturn in this image, but a closer inspection reveals a couple of companions in the rings.
Small Sidekicks
Second Largest Moon October 4, 2004 Full-Res: PIA06490 The icy moon Rhea, Saturn's second largest satellite, hangs before Cassini ...
More
Second Largest Moon
Second Largest Moon
Shadows cast across Mimas' defining feature, Herschel Crater, provide an indication of the size of the crater's towering walls and central peak.
More
Mimas' defining feature, Herschel Crater
Mimas' Mountain
Summer is slowly coming to Saturn's northern hemisphere.
More
Summer is slowly coming to Saturn's northern hemisphere.
Summer is Coming!
This image shows NASA'S Dawn scientists' best guess to date of what the surface of the protoplanet Vesta might look like; it incorporates the best data on dimples and bulges from ground-based teles...
More
Virtual Vesta
Virtual Vesta
A particularly strong jet stream churns through Saturn's northern hemisphere in this false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Clouds associated with the jet stream can be seen in the upper...
More
Saturn's Jet in False Colors
Strong Jet in False Colors
Saturn's icy, impact-riddled moon Mimas slips briefly in front of Saturn's moon Janus in this movie from Cassini. Mimas is 397 kilometers (247 miles) across, while Janus is 181 kilometers (113 mil...
More
This movie was created from 37 original images taken over the course of 20 minutes as the spacecraft's narrow-angle camera remained pointed toward Janus. Although Mimas moves a greater distance across the field of view, Janus also moved perceptibly during this time. The images were aligned to keep Janus close to the center of the scene. Additional frames were inserted between the 37 Cassini images in order to smooth the appearance of Mimas' movement -- a scheme called interpolation. Close-up images from the few minutes surrounding the occultation are arranged into a strip along the bottom of the movie.
Mimas Occults Janus
This picture of Venus was taken by the Galileo spacecrafts Solid State Imaging System on February 14, 1990, at a range of almost 1.7 million miles from the planet.
More
This picture of Venus was taken by the Galileo spacecrafts Solid State Imaging System on February 14, 1990, at a range of almost 1.7 million miles from the planet.
Venus Cloud Patterns (Colorized and Filtered)
Small water ice particles fly from fissures in the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus in this image taken during the Aug. 13, 2010, flyby of the moon by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
More
Small water ice particles fly from fissures in the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus in this image taken during the Aug. 13, 2010, flyby of the moon by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Looming Enceladus
Some of Saturn's satellites lie within the rings while others are outside the ring system. This slide illustrates the relationship between satellites and rings around Saturn. The ring plane crossin...
More
Saturn Systems Road Map
Saturn Systems Road Map
Golden hues continue to creep northward on Saturn, subduing the blues and grays the Cassini spacecraft witnessed upon arrival in mid-2004. This view was acquired from about 27 degrees above the ri...
More
Saturn
Chasing Away the Blues
The short and slender shadow of Pan is cast over Saturn's A ring as the moon orbits within the Encke Gap. As Saturn approaches its August 2009 equinox, the planet's moons are casting shadows onto ...
More
Pan's shadow is cast over Saturn's A ring
Minuscule Moon Shadow
These images were obtained by the Dawn spacecraft on July 23, 2011. The bottom two images are false-color, where different colors represent visible and infrared light wavelengths.
More
Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer False-Color Image
Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer False-Color Image
These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show Marcia crater, after which Marcia quadrangle is named. Marcia crater is the largest and southernmost of the three Vestan craters nicknamed the 'Snowman.'
More
Topography and Albedo Image of Marcia Crater
Topography and Albedo Image of Marcia Crater
Although it is far too cold for blossoming flowers, summer does bring storm clouds and presumably rain to Titan's south polar region. The observed persistence of convective storm activity in the re...
More
Three images, centered on the pole, show the evolution of bright clouds in the region
Clouds in the Distance
Saturn's moon Atlas plies the Roche Division between the A ring and the thin F ring. Atlas (30 kilometers, or 19 miles across) is near the center of the image. Bright specks in the image are backg...
More
Saturn's moon Atlas plies the Roche Division between the A ring and the thin F ring.
Navigating the Blackness
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 dramatic scene from Cassini illustrates an array of processes on Saturn's moon Enceladus, a once geologically active world. Most of the larger craters appear to have softened from their origin...
More
Close-up view of Enceledus
Craters and Cracks
This poster shows a set of images acquired by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe descent imager/spectral radiometer, in the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west), at five diffe...
More
Color images of Titan's surface
Views of Titan from Different Altitudes
This frame from a movie shows that the brightest area on Ceres, located in Occator Crater, was one of the last features to be imaged as NASA's Dawn progressively built its map.
More
Ceres LAMO Coverage Map
Ceres LAMO Coverage Map
Each Voyager spacecraft carries a copy of the Golden Record, which has been featured in several works of science fiction. 
More
Golden record and golden record cover
Voyager Golden Record
                  Gazing Down November 30, 2004   Full-Res: PIA06532   Cassini pierced the ring plane and rounded Saturn o...
More
Gazing Down
Gazing Down
As it entered the Saturn system, NASA's Cassini spacecraft performed its first targeted flyby of one of the planet's moons.
More
As it entered the Saturn system, NASA's Cassini spacecraft performed its first targeted flyby of one of the planet's moons.
Arrival and Departure at Phoebe
This series of images taken by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft shows asteroid Bennu in one full rotation from about  50 miles (80 km).
More
Close view of rock-covered asteroid rotating.
Asteroid Benn Full Rotation (50 Miles)

You Might Also Like