Asteroid Surfaces and Craters

Images capturing the surfaces of asteroids and craters taken by NASA spacecraft, featuring detailed geological formations and textures.

Proposed Mars Polar Lander Landing Site (Flat Map)

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in Vesta's Numisia quadrangle, in Vesta's northern hemisphere.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show Tuccia crater, after which Tuccia quadrangle is named. Tuccia crater is located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northward of the rim of Vesta's large south polar Rheasilvia basin.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of the surface of asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on August 12, 2011. This image was taken through the framing camera's clear filter. The image has a resolution of about 260 meters per pixel.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are dominated by the 35km diameter Bellicia crater on asteroid Vesta, after which Bellicia quadrangle is named.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captures frozen impact melt flows on the floor of Moore F, a farside highlands crater.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in asteroid Vesta's Floronia quadrangle, in Vesta's northern hemisphere. Licinia is the large, bowl shaped crater in the center with a sharp rim, which has a scalloped edge.

Proposed Mars Polar Lander Landing Site (Flat Map)

On ancient Mars, water carved channels and transported sediments to form fans and deltas within lake basins. Spectral data acquired by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, indicate chemical alteration by water.

This pair of maps based on albedo information from NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter and topographical information from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter indicates locations of confirmed sites of recurrent slope linea on Mars.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show the Domitia crater in Vesta's northern hemisphere and the topography of the surrounding region, which includes the 'Snowman' craters.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a region around the asteroid Vesta's equatorial troughs with two different resolutions. More details are visible in the right-hand image such as small linear grooves running roughly parallel to the troughs.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show many craters, which have different states of preservation, in Vesta's Bellicia quadrangle in the northern hemisphere.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show part of asteroid Vesta's equatorial region, which contains a prominent, deep impact crater (lower center of images) and large troughs (linear depressions).

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

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this albedo image of asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on August 11th 2011.

This map of Ceres, made from images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows the locations of about 130 bright areas across the dwarf planet's surface, highlighted in blue. Most of these bright areas are associated with craters.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in asteroid Vesta's Marcia quadrangle, a few degrees below Vesta's equator. Octavia Crater looks remarkably like a terrestrial landslide.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show Claudia crater (marked by an arrow) and its surroundings. Claudia crater is the crater which is used to define 0 longitude on asteroid Vesta.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the central area of the south polar basin. This view is rotated by approximately 90°.

NASAs Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired this mosaic on May 21, 2007, while investigating the area east of the elevated plateau known as 'Home Plate' in the 'Columbia Hills.' 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

These images taken by NASA's Dawn framing camera are located in asteroids Vesta's Numisia quadrangle.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in asteroid Vesta's Lucaria Tholus quadrangle, in Vesta's southern hemisphere.

This image is of Jezero Crater on Mars, the landing site for NASA's Mars 2020 mission. It was taken by instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which regularly takes images of potential landing sites for future missions. On ancient Mars, water carved channels and transported sediments to form fans and deltas within lake basins. Examination of spectral data acquired from orbit show that some of these sediments have minerals that indicate chemical alteration by water. Here in Jezero Crater delta, sediments contain clays and carbonates.

Callisto Crater Chain at High Resolution Shown in Context

This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of Ganges Chasma in Valles Marineris. The colors indicate compositional variations in the rocks exposed in the wall and floor of Ganges and in the dust and sand on the rim of the canyon.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in asteroid Vesta's Numisia quadrangle, in Vesta's southern hemisphere.

Canyon in DCS Color

Callisto Close-up with Jagged Hills

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show Oppia crater on asteroid Vesta, after which Oppia quadrangle is named. Oppia crater is a distinctive crater because it has an unusually shaped rim, which is almost rectangular in form.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in asteroid Vesta's Tuccia quadrangle, in Vesta's southern hemisphere.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show Sextilia crater on asteroid Vesta.

Map of Mars' Topography

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show Pinaria crater on asteroid Vesta, after which Pinaria quadrangle is named. Many young fresh impact craters are visible on the slumped material.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the central area of the south polar basin. This view is rotated by approximately 60°.

The gold line on this image shows NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's route as it investigating on the western rim of Endeavour Crater.

Kaiser Crater DCS

This image shows Cornelia Crater on the large asteroid Vesta. On the right is an inset image showing an example of curved gullies, indicated by the short white arrows, and a fan-shaped deposit, indicated by long white arrows.

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft of asteroid Vesta shows Aelia crater, located in Vesta's Lucaria Tholus quadrangle, in Vesta's southern hemisphere.

Bright-dark boundary and topographical model

NASA's Opportunity rover, working on Mars since January 2004, passed 25 miles of total driving on the July 27, 2014. The gold line on this map shows Opportunity's route from the landing site inside Eagle Crater, in upper left.

Wrinkle-Ridge Rings on Mercury and Mars

This image combines two separate views of the giant asteroid Vesta obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. The data reveal a world of many varied, well-separated layers and ingredients.

Martian gullies as seen in the top image from NASA's MRO resemble gullies on Earth that are carved by liquid water. However, when they are observed with the addition of mineralogical information from CRISM (bottom), no evidence for alteration by water app

This stereo image mosaic from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor is of 'Columbia Hills.' 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

Melas Chasma in IR Color

MLA Reflectivity near the North Pole

This map from NASA's Dawn mission shows locations of bright material on dwarf planet Ceres. There are more than 300 bright areas, called faculae, on Ceres. Scientists have divided them into four categories bright areas on the floors of crater (red), on the rims or walls of craters (green), in the ejecta blankets of craters (blue), and on the flanks of the mountain Ahuna Mons (yellow).

Small Valley Network Near Schiaparelli Crater

Covered Ground

This mosaic depicts a portion of asteroid Vesta imaged by NASA's Dawn spacecraft where pockets of bright materials are visible.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft show part of asteroid Vesta's equatorial region, which contains many different sizes of impact craters.

Ridges and Troughs in Sippar Sulcus, Ganymede

Modeling Ice Stability

This is a three-dimensional view of Isabela, one of the Galapagos Islands located off the western coast of Ecuador, South America.

This false-color image reveals the scar of a past major impact of a comet or small asteroid on Europa's surface. A city-sized impact crater was viewed by NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

This enhanced color view from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft zooms in on the southeastern portion of Pluto's great ice plains, where at lower right the plains border rugged, dark highlands informally named Krun Macula.

Spectacular Volcanic Features on Mercury

In Focus: Paestum Vallis

Not-so-smooth Bright Terrain of Harpagia Sulcus

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a part of asteroid Vesta's surface reasonably far north into the northern hemisphere which appears washed out because it has been stretched to make features visible that would otherwise be too dark to see.

Details about the newly discovered Rembrandt impact basin were published recently in Science magazine, and the images shown here are from that article.

Scientists with NASA's Dawn mission have created perspective views of the Rheasilvia impact basin on the giant asteroid Vesta. Rheasilvia is located in Vesta's southern hemisphere.

This composite image depicts the moon's rugged south polar region in two lights. The color image is the highest resolution topography map to date of the moon's south pole.

This anaglyph of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula was generated from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, and shows a subtle but distinctive indication of the Chicxulub impact crater. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

Rima Bradley

Targeting a Hematite-rich Terrain

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the sun illuminating the landscape of asteroid Vesta during a Vestan 'sunrise'; the sun had a low angle relative to Vesta's surface, just as the sun has a low angle in the sky in the morning on Earth.

This image shows the final flight path for NASA's twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission spacecraft, which will impact the moon on Dec. 17, 2012, around 2:28 p.m. PST.

This view of a rock called 'Rocknest 3' combines two images taken by the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on the NASA Mars rover Curiosity and indicates five spots where ChemCam had hit the rock with laser pulses to check its composition.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this false-color image of asteroid Vesta's equatorial region with its framing camera on July 25, 2011.

Enceladus' Jets

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Opportunity rover from the site of its landing, inside Eagle crater, to its location more than 112 months later, in late May 2013, departing the 'Cape York' section of the rim of Endeavour crater.

Mars Topography

A 'Hole' in Mars

The Great Caloris Basin on Mercury

This global digital map of Saturn's moon Tethys was created using data taken by the Cassini spacecraft, with gaps in coverage filled in by NASA's Voyager spacecraft data

This global map from NASA's Dawn mission shows the topography of the giant asteroid Vesta, with the seven most prominent impact basins highlighted.

These maps of Earth's moon highlight the region where the twin spacecraft of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission will impact on Dec. 17, marking the end of its successful endeavor to map the moon's gravity.

This image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko marks the first touchdown point of the Philae lander of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. The image was taken by on Sept. 14, 2104, nearly two months before Philae's Nov. 12 landing.

New View of Apollo 14

Pwyll Impact Crater: Perspective View of Topographic Model

MOC's Highest Resolution View of Mars Pathfinder Landing Site

Rilles as far as the eye can see in Prinz

This pair of images shows the area affected by the impactor released by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft in July 2005.

Craters Deformed and Shortened

A Bit of an Exaggeration

This perspective view shows the caldera of the Okmok volcano in Alaska's Aleutian Islands acquired by NASA's Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) in 2001.

These images show a subtle feature on Ceres called Kwanzaa Tholus. Kwanzaa, meaning first fruits in Swahili, is an African-American festival based on ancient African harvest celebrations, and takes place from December 26 to January 1. A tholus is a type of small mountain. Kwanzaa Tholus measures about 22 by 12 miles (35 by 19 kilometers) and is elevated about 2 miles (3 km) above its surroundings. Because the mountain does not rise sharply above the ground, it is difficult to see in the mosaic on the left, although a small crescent-shaped shadow stands out. The image on the right, which is an elevation map of the area, shows where Kwanzaa Tholus is more prominently. The rounded shape of Kwanzaa Tholus is typical of tholi (plural of tholus) in general, but is different than other examples found on Ceres (like Dalien Tholus) and Mars. This region is particularly rich in this type of feature The current Ceres map shows six named tholi and montes (slightly bigger mountains) in the region (

Retracing the Steps of Apollo 15

The Eridania basin of southern Mars is believed to have held a sea about 3.7 billion years ago, with seafloor deposits likely resulting from underwater hydrothermal activity. This graphic shows estimated depths of water in that ancient sea. A recent estimate of the total water volume of the ancient Eridania sea is about 50,000 cubic miles (210,000 cubic kilometers), about nine times the total volume of North America's Great Lakes. The map covers an area about 530 miles (850 kilometers) wide. This graphic was included in a 2017 report Ancient hydrothermal seafloor deposits in Eridania basin on Mars in Nature Communications. A reference bar indicating color coding of depth, from red, at right, showing depth of about 300 feet (100 meters) to black showing depth more than 10 times that depth. This graphic was included in a 2017 report Ancient hydrothermal seafloor deposits in Eridania basin on Mars in Nature Communications.

This composite-color view from NASA's Dawn mission shows Cornelia Crater, streaked with dark materials, on the giant asteroid Vesta. You need 3D glasses to view this image.

See Tyagaraja's Etchings

Radar-bright Deposits near Mercury's North Pole

Defrosting of Russell Crater Dunes

Targeted Color Imaging: Degas Crater

Spirit's Mission From Beginning to End

Mars Pathfinder First Anniversary Special -- Refined Landing Site Location

This stereo anaglyph from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows rocks solidified from lava. Seen here is a group of boulders informally named 'FuYi.' 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

This view of Lyot Crater is a combined mapping by NASA's Project Viking with elevation information from Mars Global Surveyor showing at least one of the nine craters in the northern lowlands of Mars with exposures of hydrated minerals detected from orbit.

Eruption at Tvashtar Catena, Io, in Color

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