This anaglyph image shows the topography of the mountain/ central complex in Vesta’s south polar region. When viewed correctly this image shows a 3D view of Vesta’s surface. This effect was achieved by superimposing two differently colored images with an offset to create depth. To view this image in 3D use red-green, or red-blue, glasses (left eye: red; right eye: green/ blue). The depth effect/ topography differences in this image were calculated from the shape model of Vesta. There is a nice height contrast between the high, roughly circular mountain/ central complex in the center of the image and the deep crater in the top of the image. The grooves and hummocky (eg. wavy/ undulating) terrane of the south polar depression also show up clearly in the top of the image. Another prominent feature is the large scarp (upside-down V shape) on the top of the mountain/ central complex.
The framing camera (FC) instrument aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained the images used to make this anaglyph on 11th and 14th August 2011. The distance from Dawn to the surface of Vesta was 2740km at this time. The image has a resolution of about 260 meters per pixel.
The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington D.C.. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing cameras have been developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The Framing Camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.
More information about Dawn is online at http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA