This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, displays a linear structure trending from northeast to southwest (lower left to upper right). The graben -- what geologists call a linear feature where terrain has dropped -- might be interpreted as a chain of collapsed pits or secondary craters. The crater at center right displays terraced walls, a common feature among the impact sites of Ceres.
The image was taken on Oct. 6, 2015, from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). It has a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel. The image is located at 31 degrees north latitude, 120 degrees east longitude.
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