DLR Institute of Planetary Research - 23.11.2011 - Vesta’s cratered landscape: double crater and craters with bright ejecta

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23.11.2011 - Vesta’s cratered landscape: double crater and craters with bright ejecta

This Dawn FC (framing camera) image is dominated by a double crater, which is located in the top of the image. The left side crater is 18 km in diameter and the right side crater is 23 km in diameter. This double crater may have been formed by the simultaneous impact of a binary asteroid. Binary asteroids are asteroids that orbit their mutual center of mass. As they orbit a mutual center of mass they move on a nearly identical path through the solar system. Thus, when they are on a collision course with another body in the solar system, such as Vesta, they will both impact the body and create overlapping craters. It is unlikely that this double crater was formed by one impact and then another because both of the craters seem to have a similar freshness and hence a similar age. It is unlikely that two non-binary asteroids would impact nearly the same spot on Vesta at a similar time. Other remarkable features across the image are young, small craters featuring bright ejecta rays. The bright linear rays at the bottom of the image originate from craters outside of the imaged area.

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