Boulders on Vesta: Nasa Dawn Mission Image of the Day Gallery 12 Oct 2011

PASADENA, Calif. -- This detail of a Dawn FC (framing camera) image shows a fresh scarp rimmed crater with many boulders on the crater floor. These boulders have diameters of 100-200m, which is roughly the size of many asteroids! Also evident in this image are linear mass movement features, which originate from the rim of the crater (bottom of image) and are due to material slumping towards the center of the crater. There are also many smaller, and presumably younger, impact craters on the walls of this crater.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on September 20^th 2011. This image was taken through the camera’s clear filter. The distance to the surface of Vesta is 670km and the image resolution is about 63 meters per pixel.

Image Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ UCLA/ MPS/ DLR/ IDA