This 3D image, called an anaglyph, shows Caparronia crater, after which Caparronia quadrangle is named. To create this anaglyph two differently colored images are superimposed with an offset to create depth. When viewed through red-blue glasses this anaglyph shows a 3D view of Vesta’s surface. The depth effect, or topography differences, in this anaglyph were calculated from the shape model of Vesta. Caparronia crater is the large, roughly 30 kilometer (18 mile) diameter crater in the top part of the image. The 3D effect of the anaglyph highlights the large ridge running across the base of Caparronia crater. Also visible is the large, degraded crater offset from the center of the image.
The images used to generate the anaglyph are located in Vesta’s Floronia quadrangle and the center is 26.0 degrees north latitude, 307.0 degrees east longitude. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on Jul. 24, 2011. This image was taken through the camera’s clear filter. The distance to the surface of Vesta is 5200 kilometers (3231 miles) and the image has a resolution of about 485 meters (1591 feet) per pixel. This image was acquired during the approach phase of the mission.
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://www.nasa.gov/dawn and http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA