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DAWN - Bild des Tages - August 2012

10.08.2012 - HAMO and LAMO images of Arruntia crater

These Dawn framing camera (FC) images of Vesta show Arruntia crater at both HAMO (high-altitude mapping orbit) and LAMO (low-altitude mapping orbit) resolutions. The left image is the HAMO image and the right image is the LAMO image. Arruntia is the large crater that almost fills the LAMO image. The LAMO image is approximately 3 times better spatial resolution than the HAMO image. In images with higher spatial resolutions smaller objects can be better distinguished. The sharpness of its left rim and the degraded nature of its right rim can been seen in both the HAMO and LAMO images. But, details such as small boulders around Arruntia’s rim can be seen in the LAMO image. On the side of Arruntia’s interior that is illuminated by the sun there is a fine-scale intermingling of dark and bright material that is also only visible in the LAMO image.

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09.08.2012 - HAMO and LAMO images of Antonia crater

These Dawn framing camera (FC) images of Vesta show Antonia crater at both HAMO (high-altitude mapping orbit) and LAMO (low-altitude mapping orbit) resolutions. The left image is the HAMO image and the right image is the LAMO image. Antonia is the large crater that dominates the LAMO image. The LAMO image is approximately 3 times better spatial resolution than the HAMO image. In images with higher spatial resolutions smaller objects can be better distinguished. Antonia crater was identified as an unusual crater from the HAMO images but the LAMO image of Antonia is spectacular. Most of Antonia has a sharp rim with finely spaced gullies running around the crater below the rim. There are also subtle variations of the brightness of the material in Antonia visible in the LAMO image. The LAMO image also highlights the boulders and mottled appearance of the slump of material on Antonia’s left side. The ridged morphology of the material outside of the right rim of Antonia is also made clearer in the LAMO image.

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08.08.2012 - HAMO and LAMO images of Canuleia crater

These Dawn framing camera (FC) images of Vesta show Canuleia crater at both HAMO (high-altitude mapping orbit) and LAMO (low-altitude mapping orbit) resolutions. The left image is the HAMO image and the right image is the LAMO image. Canuleia is the large crater that dominates the LAMO image. The LAMO image is approximately 3 times better spatial resolution than the HAMO image. In images with higher spatial resolutions smaller objects can be better distinguished. The blocks of material slumping from Canuleia’s right rim can be seen much more clearly in the LAMO image than in the HAMO image. Also, tiny boulders in the bottom of Canuleia crater are resolved in the LAMO image. These boulders can be identified by the dark shadows they cast to the left. In the LAMO image boulders can also be resolved in the dark streak of material that runs across the left side of Canuleia and the area surrounding Canuleia. There is also more detail visible in the LAMO image of the intermingled dark and bright ejecta streaks surrounding Canuleia.

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07.08.2012 - HAMO and LAMO images of Eusebia crater

These Dawn framing camera (FC) images of Vesta show Eusebia crater at both HAMO (high-altitude mapping orbit) and LAMO (low-altitude mapping orbit) resolutions. The left image is the HAMO image and the right image is the LAMO image. Eusebia is the large crater that almost fills the LAMO image. The LAMO image is approximately 3 times better spatial resolution than the HAMO image. In images with higher spatial resolutions smaller objects can be better distinguished. For example, in the LAMO image many more tiny craters can be seen in the base of Eusebia than in the HAMO image. Also, details such as boulders below the right rim of Eusebia, distinguished by the dark shadows that they cast, can be seen much more clearly in the LAMO image.

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06.08.2012 - Apparent brightness and topography images of Fabia 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. There is a white and red colored hill dominating the bottom left part of the topography image. Fabia crater is located on the side of this hill, offset just to the right of the highest, white-colored, part of the hill. The steep slope of the inner left side of Fabia is clear in the topography image because the colored topography contours range from white at Fabia’s rim to orange near its center. There is a large blue colored depression in the top left of the topography image. It is possible that this depression is part of an old, large, very degraded crater.

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03.08.2012 - Fabia crater

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Fabia crater, which is the large crater offset to the bottom right of the center of the image. Fabia crater is very distinctive because the two sides of its rim have very different states of freshness. In this image the bottom part of the rim is distinct and fresh but the top part of the rim is much more rounded and degraded. This dichotomy between the rims is possibly due to material slumping over the top part of Fabia’s rim, which caused the rim to become obscured and look more degraded. There are linear features visible on the illuminated part of Fabia crater, which were probably created by material cascading towards the center of the crater. There is also a distinguishing band of bright material along the bottom rim of the crater.

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02.08.2012 - Apparent brightness and topography images of Arruntia 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. Arruntia crater is the large crater offset from the center of the image. In the topography image it is clear that the area Arruntia formed on is sloping from the top of the image to the bottom. Also, the colored topography contours inside of the crater to the right of Arruntia show that it is very shallow. This is because they follow the pattern of the contours outside of the crater. If the crater was deeper or more pronounced the contours would have a different pattern inside of the crater.

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01.08.2012 - Arruntia crater

This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of Vesta shows Arruntia crater, which is the large crater offset to the top right of the center of the image. Slightly over half of Arruntia crater is covered in a large shadow. But, the non-shadowed part of Arruntia shows impressive details. There is bright material cropping out slightly below the left rim and just below the top and bottom rims there are distinct ridges of material, which are probably formed by material from the rim cascading down towards the center of Arruntia. Hummocky slumps of material can be seen on the lower parts of the interior of Arruntia crater. Arruntia crater is probably one of the freshest craters in this image because it has a sharp, distinct rim and because of the range of preserved features in its interior. Younger craters tend to be the ones that have suites of features within them because not enough time has passed for the features to be erased.