Rilles/scars on Vesta’s surface: Nasa Dawn Mission Image of the Day Gallery - 24 Oct 2011

PASADENA, Calif. -- This Dawn FC (framing camera) image shows small scars (known as rilles) on Vesta’s surface, which are mostly concentrated in the right half of the image. They are presumably due to impacts throwing out boulders, which then crash across the surface scouring the rilles as they go. Such boulders are visible as tiny black dots, due to their shadows, in the top right of the image. They are just underneath a bright patch, which is the edge of an impact crater. This impact crater could be where these boulders originated. In the top left of the image short rilles cut across partially infilled impact craters.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on October 3, 2011. This image was taken through the camera’s clear filter. The distance to the surface of Vesta is 670km and the image has a resolution of about 66 meters per pixel.

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