DLR Institute of Planetary Research - 08.11.2011 - Topography of Vesta’s equatorial region II

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08.11.2011 - Topography of Vesta’s equatorial region II

PASADENA, Calif. -- These Dawn FC (framing camera) images show part of Vesta’s equatorial region, which contains many different sizes of impact craters. The left image is an albedo image, which is taken directly through the clear filter of the FC. Such an image shows the albedo (eg. brightness/ darkness) of the surface. The right image uses the same albedo image as its base but then a color-coded height representation of the topography is overlain onto it. The topography is calculated from a set of images that were observed from different viewing directions, called stereo images. The various colors correspond to the height of the area that they color. For example, the white and red areas along the bottom of the image are the highest areas and the blue areas along the top of the image are the lowest. There is a long low area running obliquely across the image (color-coded blue and green in the topography image), which is not as clear in the albedo image. This long low area appears to be made up of three old, large, eroded craters.

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