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Fresh impact craters on asteroid Vesta
Monday, 12 December 2011 12:29
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Solar system - Asteroids

False-colour image of fresh impact craters on Vesta

New images from dec. 6 of the asteroid Vesta shows 2 large impact craters, which are dominated by material from Vesta's interior

This image, taken December 6, 2011, combines two separate views of the giant asteroid Vesta obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. The images were taken by Dawn's framing camera.

Usually Dawn uses near-infrared filters to create false-color images, where red is used to represent 750 nanometers, green represents 920 nanometers and blue represents 980 nanometers. The above image is however an image with colors assigned by scientists, representing different rock or mineral types on Vesta, revealing a world of many varied, well-separated layers and ingredients.

The fresh impact craters in this view are located in the south polar region, which has been partly covered by landslides from the adjacent crater. This would suggest that a layer of loose material covers the Vesta surface

Source: NASA Image galleyr