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DAWN - Bild des Tages - April 2012

30.04.2012 - Tuccia and Eusebia craters

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Eusebia crater on the right, which was the subject of the previous image of the day. The smaller crater, offset from the center of the image, with a smaller crater on its rim is Tuccia crater. Tuccia crater is approximately 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) in diameter and the crater on its rim is roughly 3.5 kilometers (2.1 miles) in diameter. Tuccia crater is surrounded by a distinctive halo of diffuse and rayed bright material and this bright material is also inside of the crater. The smaller crater on Tuccia’s rim has dark and bright material inside of it.

27.04.2012 - Eusebia crater

27 April 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Eusebia crater, which is the large crater in the top right of the image. Eusebia crater is approximately 26 kilometers (16 miles) in diameter and has a reasonably fresh rim. Like many other craters on Vesta Eusebia’s rim is irregularly shaped and there are ridges and gullies forming just below the rim inside of the crater. These ridges and gullies are visible on the right side of Eusebia. There are also many smaller craters, with diameters of less than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile), located inside of Eusebia. These smaller craters must be younger than Eusebia because if they were older they would have been destroyed by the impact that formed Eusebia.

26.04.2012 - Drusilla crater

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Drusilla crater, which is the irregularly shaped crater offset from the center of the image. The average diameter of Drusilla crater is 21 kilometers (13 miles) but this varies due the wavy and irregular nature of Drusilla’s rim. Drusilla is a reasonably fresh crater, but there is some debris in the base of the crater that are likely due to slumping of material from the rim of the crater. The slumped debris in the center of the crater is similar to those in Caparronia crater, which is located in Vesta’s northern hemisphere. There is a similarly sized but much more degraded crater located just to the top right of Drusilla, which is barely visible in this image.

25.04.2012 - Canuleia and Sossia craters

24 April 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows two craters, one that has been named Canuleia and one that has been named Sossia. Canuleia is the bright crater in the top right of the image and Sossia crater is the smaller crater near the center of the image. Canuleia was the subject of the previous image of the day. Sossia crater is approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) in diameter and is surrounded by areas of dark material. One area of dark material is associated with the small crater located just off the bottom right part of Sossia’s rim and another area of dark material is located along the top left rim. This area of dark material spreads out from the rim in long, curvilinear streaks. There is also some bright material inside of Sossia crater but Canuleia crater contains much more bright material

24.04.2012 - Canuleia crater

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Canuleia crater, which is the large, irregularly shaped crater in the top left of the image. Canuleia’s average diameter is roughly 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) but it is clear in this image that the diameter running from top to bottom is larger than the diameter running from left to right. Other interesting features of Canuleia include the diffuse bright material that is both inside and outside of its rim and the ridges and gullies around its rim. Also striking is the patch of dark material, with a rounded end, that is located inside and outside of the crater’s bottom left quadrant. Surrounding Canuleia are the distinctive curved grooves and ridges of Vesta’s southern hemisphere.

23.04.2012 - Aquilia crater

24 April 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Aquilia crater. Aquilia is the large crater in the top right of the image that is nearly 37 kilometers (23 miles) in diameter. Part of Aquilia’s rim is fresher than the other part. The bottom part of the rim is especially degraded. The especially degraded rim was probably formed by debris slumping into the crater, which then obscured the rim. The point at which the debris comes to a stop inside the crater is visible as a diagonal line running across the bottom part of the crater. On the top right side of Aquilia there are many grooves and ridges, which are probably also formed by slumping of material on a smaller scale.

20.04.2012 - Antonia crater

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Antonia crater, which is the crater below the center of the image that is roughly 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) in diameter. Antonia’s rim has two different states of freshness: the bottom left one-third of the rim is very degraded but the other two-thirds of the rim is reasonably fresh. The very degraded rim is due to this part of the crater being covered by debris. There is also a distinctive line running across Antonia’s base that marks the boundary of the debris with the rest of the crater. It is thought that the debris was deposited in this location, following the impact that formed Antonia, because Antonia formed on a sloping surface. There are other craters on Vesta that look like Antonia, which are also located on slopes.

19.04.2012 - Aelia crater

24 April 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Aelia crater, which is the small crater roughly in the center of the image. There is a larger, more degraded crater to the left of Aelia. Dark and bright material crops out from Aelia’s rim and slumps towards its center and also extends in rays outside of the crater’s rim for up to approximately 7 kilometers (4.4 miles). This dark and bright material is concentrated into bands, each of which is less than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) in width. One particularly striking band originates on the left side of Aelia’s rim and then slumps down into the neighboring, degraded crater. This band consists of a central band of bright material that is flanked by bands of dark material on either side.

18.04.2012 - Grooved surface and area of boulders

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows an area of the surface that is both grooved and smooth, which gives it an undulating appearance. The grooves run in many directions and are narrow, much less than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) in width. There are many tiny craters, which are only a few hundred meters (hundreds of feet) in diameter, visible across this image. Small-scale features such as these are only visible in Dawn’s high-resolution LAMO (low-altitude mapping orbit) orbit images. Another set of small-scale features is the cluster of boulders in the bottom right of the image. The boulders are distinguished from small craters because of the orientation of their shadows: the boulders cast shadows to the left because they are sticking out of the surface, while the craters cast shadows to the right because they are set into the surface.

17.04.2012 - Curved surface features

12 April 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows many curved ridges that are typical of Vesta’s southern hemisphere. These curved ridges are oriented diagonally across the image and are typically around 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) in length. The curved ridges are not visible in the top part of the image. Also in this image, there are two nice examples of craters that have formed on the rim of another crater. One is located in the top left of the image and the other is offset from the center of the image.

16.04.2012 - Ejecta-covered surface

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows a region of the surface that is rather smooth in appearance. This smooth appearance is probably due to this surface being covered with fine-grained material ejected from an impact crater that is not shown in this image. There are some small, fresh craters that are less than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) in diameter that are formed on top of this ejecta-covered surface. There are also larger craters, typically in the range of 3 to 5 kilometers (1.9 to 3.1 miles) in diameter, that have very degraded rims and are probably partially buried by the ejecta. Hence, they are likely to be older than the ejecta material that covers this surface.

13.04.2012 - Crater wall with sinuous features

12 April 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows part of a large crater with a relatively fresh rim. The interior of the crater appears much brighter than the surrounding area because this image has been stretched to brighten the interior of the crater. In the original image, the crater interior was originally much darker than it appears now. The most striking feature in this image is the bright and dark material cropping out near the rim of the crater and slumping towards the crater center. This material is rather sinuous in shape.

12.04.2012 - Smooth, grooved surface

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows a particularly smooth part of the giant asteroid’s surface. This area is likely covered in fine-grained regolith material because a covering of fine-grained material usually gives a surface a smooth appearance. However, this surface is not perfectly smooth. There are many grooves running diagonally across the image that are less than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) wide and are up to 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) long. There are also some small, fresh craters. The area in the top left of the image is less smooth, possibly because regolith slumped.

11.04.2012 - Chain of secondary craters

5 April 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta is dominated by a chain of secondary craters that runs diagonally across the image form the top right to the bottom left. The chain is in one part in the top right of the image but splits into two parts in the bottom left of the image. It is likely that this chain of craters was formed by debris ejected from a larger crater just after it was formed. The craters in this chain are called secondary craters because they are not formed by debris that originate in space but from debris thrown out from a primary crater created by the impact of debris from space.

10.04.2012 - Surface covered by regolith and fresh young impacts

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows a relatively smooth area of Vesta’s surface. This region is smooth because it is mostly covered by fine-grained debris, known as regolith. There are some fresh impact craters that are younger than the regolith. These craters are generally small, less than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) in diameter, and have fresh rims. Some of the larger craters with more degraded rims may be craters that are older than the regolith and were partially buried by it. Many linear features are also seen in the regolith. Small-scale grooves and ridges, which are less than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) in width, run diagonally across the image from top left to bottom right and from top right to bottom left.

09.04.2012 - An old crater almost completely filled with regolith

5 April 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows an old, very degraded crater that is almost completely filled with regolith. Regolith is the fine-grained material that covers most of Vesta’s surface. Parts of the rim of the old crater are barely visible in this image as curving ridges. There have been many subsequent impact craters formed in the crater-filling regolith and there are also many grooves cutting across it. These grooves run diagonally across the image and are most visible in the bottom right of the image.

06.04.2012 - Spots of dark material surrounding an impact crater

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows a large crater, which is surrounded by spots of dark material, in the bottom right corner of the image. This crater has a reasonably sharp, fresh rim and it is irregularly shaped: the diameter of the crater in one direction is roughly 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) and is roughly 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) in another direction. The spots of dark material outside of the crater rim are generally associated with small impact craters and the dark material inside of the crater rim is generally cropping out of the crater rim and slumping towards its center. There is also some bright material cropping out the crater’s rim. Farther away from this crater there are many sinuous grooves running diagonally across the image.

05.04.2012 - Dark material in the ejecta of a small crater

5 April 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows a small crater with ejecta made of dark material, in the center of the image. This crater is roughly 1.25 kilometers (0.78 miles) in diameter, has a reasonably sharp rim and the dark ejecta extends for roughly 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles). The dark ejected material does not extend evenly around the crater, but is concentrated on the top left side of the crater. Dark material is also visible in a large part of the interior of the crater. None of the other craters have such clearly visible dark material associated with them. The origin of Vesta’s dark material is enigmatic and is currently under investigation.

04.04.2012 - Sharp crater rim

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows the sharp, fresh crater rim of a large crater that is only partly in the bottom right corner of this image. There are a number of areas of bright material slumping from the rim and near the rim of this crater towards its center. The area outside of this large crater is reasonably smooth, possibly because this area is covered in fine-grained ejecta that were ejected from the large crater as an impact formed it. There are also some small craters on top of this ejecta blanket and some narrow grooves that run diagonally across the image.

03.04.2012 - Curved chain of small craters

30 March 2012
This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows a slightly curved chain of small craters in the bottom half of the image. The chain is approximately 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) wide and extends for roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) in this image. But it is longer than this and extends out of the field of view of the image. This chain is located on the floor of Vesta’s large south-polar impact structure, Rheasilvia. The chain was most likely created by material ejected during the formation of a larger crater outside of the imaged area. Offset from the center of the image is a crater that has one side that is fresher and distinct and one side that is less distinct and more degraded. This crater is similar in morphology to Helena crater, which has been in the two previous images of the day.

02.04.2012 - Apparent brightness and topography images of Helena crater

The left-hand image is a Dawn FC (framing camera) image, which shows the apparent brightness of Vesta’s surface. The right-hand image is based on this apparent brightness image, which has had a color-coded height representation of the topography overlain onto it. The topography is calculated from a set of images that were observed from different viewing directions, which allows stereo reconstruction. The various colors correspond to the height of the area. The white and red areas in the topography image are the highest areas and the blue areas are the lowest areas. Helena crater is the largest crater in the center of the images. The topography image shows that the left slope of Helena has a greater height change because it goes from being colored red at the rim to being green-blue at the base while the right slope has a smaller color-coded variation from green to green-blue.

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