These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show part of asteroid Vesta's equatorial region, which contains impact craters and troughs (linear depressions).

These Dawn FC (framing camera) images show part of Vesta's equatorial region, which contains impact craters and troughs (linear depressions). The left image is an albedo image, which is taken directly through the clear filter of the FC. Such an image shows the albedo (e.g. brightness/darkness) of the surface. The right image uses the same albedo image as its base but then a color-coded height representation of the topography is overlain onto it. The topography is calculated from a set of images that were observed from different viewing directions, called stereo images. The various colors correspond to the height of the area that they color. For example, the white area in the bottom of the image is the highest area and the blue area in the top right of the image is the lowest. This blue area corresponds to a large circular depression, which is perhaps a very eroded ancient crater. The troughs, which run across the bottom of the image, do not have a continuous height along their lengths.



More information about Dawn is online at and

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