Asteroids and Dwarf Planets

A collection of images depicting asteroids and dwarf planets from NASA missions, showcasing their textured surfaces, craters, and unique geological features against a black background.

The moon from space

The Blending of Art and Science

Image of an asteroid.

Dione in Full View - False Color

Surface of the Moon

AS8-18-2883 (21-27 Dec. 1968) --- An Apollo 8 photograph of the surface of the moon. HOLD PICTURE WITH SKY AT TOP. The dark-floored crater in the lower right corner is named Lomonosov, and measures approximately 50 statute miles in diameter. The bright-rayed crater was named Giordano Bruno by the Russians. Bruno was a sixteenth-century Italian scientist. Lomonosov is located on the lunar farside at about 102 degrees east longitude and 28 degrees north latitude.

This stereo view of Iapetus was created by combining two NASA Cassini images, which were taken one day apart. The view serves mainly to show the spherical shape of Iapetus and some of the moons topography. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

This image of the western hemisphere of the Moon was taken through a green filter by NASA's Galileo spacecraft at 9:35 a.m. PST Dec. 9 at a range of about 350,000 miles. In the center is the Orientale Basin.

This image, obtained by the framing camera on NASA's Dawn spacecraft, a peak at Vesta's south pole is seen at the lower right. The grooves in the equatorial region are about six miles wide.

This orthographic projection is centered on the south polar region of the moon as seen by NASA's Clementine spacecraft. The Schrodinger Basin is located in the lower right of the mosaic.

This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows battered terrain around the north pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. Craters crowd and overlap each other, each one recording an impact in the moon's distant past.

Looking Back to the Source

Rhea's Relief

Subtle color differences on Saturn's moon Mimas are apparent in this false-color view of Herschel Crater captured during NASA's Cassini spacecraft on its closest-ever flyby of that moon.

Capturing Callisto

Moon seen from the East

Ride Along with the NAC

All of the asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft as of September 2008

False Color Image of Mimas

Mercury Globe: South Pole

False color images of Saturn's moon, Mimas, reveal variation in either the composition or texture across its surface.

Craters of Mercury

Rhea's trailing hemisphere shows off its wispy terrain on the left of this image which includes Saturn's rings in the distance. Cassini.

This mosaic picture of the Moon was compiled from 18 images taken with a green filter NASA's Galileo's imaging system during the spacecraft's flyby on December 7, 1992, some 11 hours before its Earth flyby.

Facing Dione

Map of Phoebe

Ultracold hydrocarbon lakes and seas (dark shapes) near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan can be seen embedded in some kind of bright surface material in this infrared mosaic from NASA's Cassini mission.

This spectacular image of comet Tempel 1 was taken 67 seconds after it obliterated NASA's Deep Impact's impactor spacecraft.

The Two Faces of Janus

Voyager 2 picture of Oberon, Uranus' outermost moon.

Three views of Saturn's moon Rhea made from data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, were enhanced to show colorful splotches and bands on the icy moon's surface. Scientists believe the reddish and bluish tints came from bombardments large and small.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks at a brightly illuminated Enceladus and examines the surface of the leading hemisphere of this Saturnian moon.

Mercury Globe: 0N, 270E

Canyons and mountain peaks snake along the terminator on the crater-covered, icy moon Dione. With the Sun at a low angle on their local horizon, the line of mountain ridges above center casts shadows toward the east

Rhea displays a prominent scar in this view from Cassini. A large and ancient impact basin can be seen at upper right. The giant feature occurs within a terrain that appears rugged and which likely is saturated with other smaller craters

Taking advantage of extra solar energy collected during the day, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit settled in for an evening of stargazing, photographing the two moons of Mars as they crossed the night sky. The first two images in this sequence show gradual enhancements in the surface detail of Mars' largest moon, Phobos, made possible through a combination technique known as stacking. In stacking, scientists use a mathematical process known as Laplacian sharpening to reinforce features that appear consistently in repetitive images and minimize features that show up only intermittently. In this view of Phobos, the large crater named Stickney is just out of sight on the moon's upper right limb. Spirit acquired the first two images with the panoramic camera on the night of sol 585 (Aug. 26,2005). The far right image of Phobos, for comparison, was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express, a European Space Agency orbiter. The third image in this sequence was derived fr

Over the Limb

Craters on Saturn's moon Pandora exhibit clarity and depth in this anaglyph from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

The northern and southern hemispheres of Saturn's moon Mimas are seen in these polar stereographic maps, mosaicked from the best-available NASA's Cassini and Voyager images.

Flute Music

Cassini spied a crater-covered Dione in this image from Dec. 8, 2004. The bright, wispy streaks for which Dione is known are located on the moon's night side to the west. The streaky terrain was imaged at very high resolution by Cassini during its flyby of Dione on Dec. 14, 2004. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across. This view shows mostly the trailing hemisphere of Dione. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera at a distance of 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 58 degrees. North is up. The image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility of surface features. http //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06551

MESSENGER Encounters the Innermost Planet

Mountains and Plateaus on Io

A large dark region fills a semicircle of the visible disk of Iapetus on the left of this NASA Cassini spacecraft image, appearing like a bite taken out of this Saturnian moon.

This frame from an animation shows Ceres as seen by NASA's Dawn spacecraft from its high-altitude mapping orbit at 913 miles (1,470 kilometers) above the surface. The colorful map overlaid at right shows variations in Ceres' gravity field measured by Dawn, and gives scientists hints about the dwarf planet's internal structure. Red colors indicate more positive values, corresponding to a stronger gravitational pull than expected, compared to scientists' pre-Dawn model of Ceres' internal structure; blue colors indicate more negative values, corresponding to a weaker gravitational pull. The animation was created by projecting a map of Ceres onto a rotating sphere. The image scale is about 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel. The animations are available at

moon An illustration of a nice deep space moon background Copyright: xZoonar.com/magannx 1265026

Realistic model of planet earth on black background, asia, 3d render

These six images from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity show the two moons of Mars moments before (left three) and after (right three) the larger moon, Phobos, occulted Deimos on Aug. 1, 2013.

Spirit's View on Sol 107 (polar)

Researchers from NASA's Dawn mission have composed the first comprehensive views of the north (left) and south pole regions (right) of dwarf planet Ceres, using images obtained by the Dawn spacecraft.

Flight over Iapetus

Hyperion Hoopla

This oblique view, captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows geological layers of rock exposed on a mound inside Gale Crater on Mars. This view was created from a three-dimensional topographic model of the mound.

Asteroid approaching Earth, illustration

Appearing like eyes on a potato, craters cover the dimly lit surface of the moon Prometheus in this high-resolution image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft's early 2010 flyby.

This composite image of asteroid 2007 PA8 was obtained using data taken by NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif.

Saturn's moon Hyperion pops into view in this stereo anaglyph created from NASA's Cassini images; differing views are helpful in interpreting the moon's irregular shape. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft obtained these three images of Pluto between July 1-3 ,2015, as the spacecraft closed in on its July 14 encounter with the dwarf planet and its moons.

Tolstoj and Nureyev

Peak to Pit

Images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken on July 14, 2014, by the OSIRIS imaging system aboard ESA's Rosetta spacecraft have allowed scientists to create this three-dimensional shape model of the nucleus.

A Defining Feature

This composite is a mosaic comprising four individual Rosetta NAVCAM images taken from 19 miles (31 kilometers) from the center of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Nov. 20, 2014.

These radar images of comet P/2016 BA14 were taken on March 22, 2016, by scientists using an antenna of NASA's Deep Space Network at Goldstone, CA. At the time, the comet was about 2.2 million miles (3.6 million kilometers) from Earth.

Rhea displays a marked color contrast from north to south that is particularly easy to see in the extreme color-enhanced Cassini spacecraft view presented here

Saturn's Satellite 1980S1

An extreme false-color view of Tethys reveals a surface detail not visible in a monochrome view taken at the same time

This set of images exposes details on small and crumpled-looking Helene. Large portions of this Trojan moon of Dione appear to have been blasted away by impacts

A Flood of Rock

The giant impact basin Odysseus on Saturn's moon Tethys stands out brightly from the rest of the illuminated icy crescent as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Artist's concept of the Dawn spacecraft gathering spectral data from Vesta.

Spirit's View on Sol 147 (Polar)

NASA release date March 29, 2010 The highest-resolution-yet temperature map and images of Saturns icy moon Mimas obtained by NASAs Cassini spacecraft reveal surprising patterns on the surface of the small moon, including unexpected hot regions that resemble “Pac-Man” eating a dot, and striking bands of light and dark in crater walls. The left portion of this image shows Mimas in visible light, an image that has drawn comparisons to the "Star Wars" Death Star. The right portion shows the new temperature map, which resembles 1980s video game icon "Pac Man."

Asteroid 1998 WT24 (left in December 2001, right on December 11, 2015) taken by NASA's the 230-foot (70-meter) DSS-14 antenna at Goldstone, California.

AS13-62-8918 (April 1970) --- This oblique view of the lunar farside was photographed from the Apollo 13 spacecraft as it passed around the moon on its hazardous journey homeward. This view is looking east. The large crater in the center at the horizon is International Astronomical Union Crater No. 221. The next larger crater just south of I.A.U. No. 221 is I.A.U. 220. This area of the moon is located southeast of Mare Moscoviense. I.A.U. 221 is located at 164 degrees east longitude and 10 degrees north latitude.

Artwork of an asteroid.

These radar images of near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon were generated by astronomers at the National Science Foundation's Arecibo Observatory on Dec. 17, 2017. Observations of Phaethon were conducted at Arecibo from Dec.15 through 19, 2017. At time of closest approach on Dec. 16 at 3 p.m. PST (6 p.m. EST, 11 p.m. UTC) the asteroid was about 6.4 million miles (10.3 million kilometers) away, or about 27 times the distance from Earth to the moon. The encounter is the closest the object will come to Earth until 2093. An animation is available at

This close-up view of comet Hartley 2 was taken as NASA's EPOXI mission approached the comet at 6:59 a.m. PDT (9:59 a.m. EDT).

Iapetus Surface Composition

Geologic Landforms on Io (Area 5)

Stardust Image of Asteroid Annefrank

CRISM Views Phobos and Deimos

This composite image shows the three small worlds NASA's Stardust spacecraft encountered during its 12 year mission. Stardust performed a flyby of asteroid Annefrank in 2002, Comet Wild in 2004, and Tempel 1 in 2011.

Spirit's View on Sol 124 (polar)

Four images taken by the ESA Rosetta spacecraft create a montage showing jets of dust and gas escaping from the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Like that of Charon, Hydra's surface is probably covered with water ice, the most abundant ice in the universe. This image, with a resolution of 2 miles per pixel, was taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft from approximately 400,000 miles away.

This 360-degree polar projection was assembled from images taken by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exporation Rover Opportunity shows terrain surrounding the position where the rover spent its 3,000th Martian day.

The Beauty of Calibration

Illustration of an asteroid in outer space.

These two color views of the asteroid Gaspra were produced by combining three images taken through violet, green, and infrared filters by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on October 29, 1991.

Jupiter's atmospheric circulation is dominated by alternating eastward and westward jets from equatorial to polar latitudes. This image was taken on April 3, 1997, by NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

This image of an asteroid that is at least 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) long was taken on Dec. 17, 2015, by scientists using NASA's 230-foot Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California.

NASA image acquired June 03, 2012 This scene is to the northwest of the recently named crater Magritte, in Mercury's south. The image is not map projected; the larger crater actually sits to the north of the two smaller ones. The shadowing helps define the striking "Mickey Mouse" resemblance, created by the accumulation of craters over Mercury's long geologic history. This image was acquired as part of MDIS's high-incidence-angle base map. The high-incidence-angle base map is a major mapping activity in MESSENGER's extended mission and complements the surface morphology base map of MESSENGER's primary mission that was acquired under generally more moderate incidence angles. High incidence angles, achieved when the Sun is near the horizon, result in long shadows that accentuate the small-scale topography of geologic features. The high-incidence-angle base map is being acquired with an average resolution of 200 meters/pixel. The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit t

Filling the Gaps

On June 8, 2011, the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft captured the instrument's first images of Vesta that are larger than a few pixels, from a distance of about 218,000 miles (351,000 kilometers).

of 2