DLR Institute of Planetary Research - 17.11.2011 - Features on Vesta’s regolith

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17.11.2011 - Features on Vesta’s regolith

This Dawn FC (framing camera) image shows different features that form in the regolith covering Vesta’s surface. Regolith is the layer of loose, small sized material which often covers the bedrock of planets. Sinuous features in the top of the image are probably due to slumping of this regolith on a slope, similar to the way that sand slumps on the sides of sand dunes. Many of the narrow linear features in the bottom of the image are also probably due to some sort of slumping in the regolith. However, some of these linear features appear to be originating from the roughly 6km diameter crater, in the bottom left of the image, so they may have been formed by debris ejected from this crater scouring across Vesta’s surface. Also, the large crater on the bottom right side of the image has both bright and dark material cropping out in its interior and slumping towards its center.

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