Lunar and Ceres Surface Features

High-resolution images of various lunar and Ceres craters, showcasing impact features, textures, and surface details.

Another Small Volcano
Another Small Volcano
318 assets in this story
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Covered Catullus
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This image, taken on June 10, 2016 by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows cratered terrain on Ceres. Dawn took this image from its low-altitude mapping orbit, at a distance of about 240 miles (385 kilometers) above the surface.
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Unchained
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Orientale Basin
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows many craters of different sizes and states of preservation on asteroid Vesta's surface. In the top of the image there are four large, very degraded craters.
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Antoniadi Ridge, over 450 kilometers long, runs along the right side of this acquired image during NASA's Mariner 10's first encounter with Mercury after its launch in 1974.
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This image was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on July 3, 2018 from an altitude of about 28 miles (44 kilometers). The center of this picture is located at about 18.0 degrees north latitude and 238.0 degrees east longitude.
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This image, from NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft which launched in 1974, is located about 500 km east of the Caloris basin and shows hummocky plains interpreted as Caloris ejecta in the upper half of the picture and smooth plains in the lower half.
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Distinctive asymmetrical ejecta surrounding a 140 meter diameter crater in the lunar highlands as seen by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Crater is located on the northeastern rim of the eroded (pre-Nectarian) crater Hommel.
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This image of Numisia AV-L-21, from the atlas of the giant asteroid Vesta, was created from images taken as NASA's Dawn mission flew around the object, also known as a protoplanet.
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This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows the surface of dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The image was taken on August 21, 2015, and has a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel.
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Rima Calippus in northwest Mare Serenitatis.
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This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Oct. 17, 2016, captures the day-night boundary, or terminator, in the north polar region of Ceres. The north pole itself, which lies just slightly left of center in this view, is barely sunlit.
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A Closer Look at Glinka
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A Path not Taken
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A Wrinkle Ridge in Time
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Just nine minutes after NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft passed 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the surface of Mercury, its closest distance to the planet during the January 14, 2008, flyby, the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) snapped this image.
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Side Hit
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This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a sinuous canyon in the southern hemisphere of Ceres, south of Yalode Crater.
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Eminent Eminescu
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Mercury's Geology: A Story with Many Chapters
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In the best-selling novel 'The Martian' and the movie based on it, stranded astronaut Mark Watney's adventures take him to the rim of Mawrth Crater. This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the nature of this terrain.
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This view from NASA's captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Dec. 21,2015, shows the central complex of mountain peaks within Dantu Crater on Ceres. A patch of bright material is visible near lower left.
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft flys over dwarf planet Ceres which Dawn has been orbiting for mre than a year, providing us with fascinating views of an alien world.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows many large subdued craters that have smaller, younger craters on top of them on asteroid Vesta. There are two large subdued craters in the center of the image, which have very degraded and rounded rims.
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft took this image on Feb. 4, 2016, showing a double impact feature at high northern latitudes on Ceres, just south of the large crater named Ghanan.
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This crater illustrates the narrow hummocky rim facies, radial ridges, and surrounding extensive field of secondary craters. This image of Mercury was taken by NASA's Mariner 10.
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A Choreographer's Crater
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This image, taken June 6, 2015 by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows Haulani crater on Ceres from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) with a resolution of 1,400 feet (410 meters) per pixel. North on Ceres is toward upper right.
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This image, from NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft which launched in 1974, shows a crater just north of the Caloris Planitia displays interior and central peaks rising up from a hilly floor.
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This image, from NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft which launched in 1974, is of the northeastern quadrant of the Caloris basin and shows the smooth hills and domes between the inner and outer scarps and the well-developed radial system east of the outer scarp
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Belinskij and Craters of Darkness
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Over the Edge
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This zoomed-in view of Epimetheus, one of the highest resolution ever taken, shows a surface covered in craters, vivid reminders of the hazards of space. Epimetheus (70 miles or 113 kilometers across) is too small for its gravity to hold onto an atmosphere. It is also too small to be geologically active. There is therefore no way to erase the scars from meteor impacts, except for the generation of new impact craters on top of old ones. This view looks toward anti-Saturn side of Epimetheus. North on Epimetheus is up and rotated 32 degrees to the right. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 21, 2017 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 939 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 9,300 miles (15,000 kilometers) from Epimetheus and at a Sun-Epimetheus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 71 degrees. Image scale is 290 feet (89 meters) per pixel.
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft captured this view of a region in the mid-southern latitudes of Ceres. The largest crater in the scene is Fluusa. Fluusa has a densely cratered floor and therefore is interpreted as an old impact feature.
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This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows impact craters near Ceres' equator where material from the rim of one crater has apparently collapsed into its neighbor. A variety of large boulders are visible within the younger crater at top.
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Blue Serge
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft spied this relatively smooth area of Ceres' surface, which includes the feature named Dalien Tholus, a dome-shaped feature visible in top right quadrant of the image.
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Different Strokes
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Craters Near the South Pole of Callisto
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NASA's Cassini spacecraft swooped in for a close-up of the cratered, fractured surface of Saturn's moon Dione in this image taken during the spacecraft's Jan. 27, 2010, non-targeted flyby.
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This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows cratered terrain at 59 degrees north latitude, 89 degrees east longitude on Ceres, just east of the large crater named Omonga.
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This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft taken on May 29, 2016, shows terrain on Ceres centered at approximately 41 degrees north latitude, 308 degrees east longitude. Several features in this view display streaks and patches of bright material.
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Kalidasa in Detail
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This view shows the southwestern rim of 106-mile-wide (170-kilometer-wide) Urvara crater on Ceres.In the crater's center is a prominent double peak. NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained the image on Oct. 15, 2015.
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on Aug. 26, 2011. The detail in this image shows impacts of all sizes, grooves, scarps and smooth areas.
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Imagine
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Medusae Fossae #2
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A Volcanic View
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Wrinkle Ridges in Aitken Crater
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This image of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows cratered terrain at high northern latitudes. Ghanan Crater is seen at upper-right. A distinctive flow feature extends into the crater from its northern rim.
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Contact High
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Up Close and Personal
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Five of Five: The Last Scene in a High-resolution Color Mosaic
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The Tolstoj Impact Basin
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft highlights Axomama Crater, the small crater shown to the right of center. It is 3 miles (5 kilometers) in diameter and located just inside the western rim of Dantu Crater. Axomama is one of the newly named craters on Ceres. Its sharp edges indicate recent emplacement by a small impact. This picture also shows details on the floor of Dantu, which comprises most of the image. The many fractures and the central pit (see also PIA20303) are reminiscent of Occator Crater and could point to a similar formation history, involving activity driven by the presence of liquid water in the subsurface. Axomama is named after the Incan goddess of potato, or Potato-mother. NASA's Dawn spacecraft acquired this picture during its extended mission on July 24, 2016, from its low altitude mapping orbit at about 240 miles (385 kilometers) above the surface. The center coordinates of this image are 24 degrees north latitude, 131 degrees east longitude.
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M-E-R-C (See you real soon!) U-R-Y (Why Because we like you!)
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spied a very subtle mare-highlands boundary in Mare Moscoviense on the lunar farside, near the center of the Constellation Program region of interest.
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On Hole-y Ground
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This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 22, 2015, from a distance of 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers) with a resolution of 1,600 feet (480 meters) per pixel.
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Caloris Basin as Seen by MESSENGER
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of a dark band on asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on August 19, 2011. The image has a resolution of about 260 meters per pixel.
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Window to the Farside Mantle
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft showing the northern part of Hanami Planum on Ceres honors the Japanese cherry blossom festival, or Hanami, which is a long-standing Japanese tradition of welcoming spring. Hanami Planum is the third largest geological feature on Ceres, after Vendimia Planitia and the Samhain Catenae. It extends over 345 miles (555 kilometers). This image shows familiar features, such as Occator Crater, characterized both by bright material inside the crater and dark ejecta material outside. Several parallel linear features, called Junina Catenae, can be seen departing from Occator and extending toward the top of the image. These catenae are chains of small craters formed by the impact and scouring of material ejected when large craters are formed. Scientists were able to relate these crater chains to Urvara and Yalode. Even though these are located in the southern hemisphere, some of their ejecta could reach the northern hemisphere, thanks to Ceres' fast rotation
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A Rupes and a Ray
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Apollo 8,Farside of Moon. Image taken on Revolution 4. Camera Tilt Mode: Vertical Stereo. Sun Angle: 13. Original Film Magazine was labeled D. Camera Data: 70mm Hasselblad. Lens: 80mm; F-Stop: F/2.8; Shutter Speed: 1/250 second. Film Type: Kodak SO-3400 Black and White,ASA 40. Flight Date: December 21-27,1968.
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That's A Stretch!
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft spied Achita Crater on Ceres in this view captured on June 3, 2016, at a distance of about 240 miles (385 kilometers) above the surface. Achita is named for a Nigerian god of agriculture and is 25 miles (40 kilometers) wide.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft is centered on the Sextilia crater in asteroid Vesta's southern hemisphere. Craters on Vesta are named after Vestal virgins, priestesses of the Roman goddess Vesta.
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's sees bright crater rays and boulders.
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This image shows Haulani Crater and its bright ejecta near the limb of Ceres and Oxo Crater near the center of the image. The latter is easily recognizable by its bright wall that is enriched in ice and carbonate. The image is facing south, with Haulani Crater located near Ceres' equator at 5.8 degrees north latitude and 10.8 degrees east longitude and Oxo Crater located at 42.2 degrees north latitude and 359.6 degrees east longitude. The images used in this montage were obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on September 1, 2018 from an altitude of about 2075 miles (3340 kilometers). NASA announced the conclusion of Dawn's mission operations was Oct. 31, 2018, when the spacecraft depleted its hydrazine. Haulani Crater is named after Hau-lani , the Hawaiian plant goddess. Oxo Crater is named after the God of agriculture in Afro-Brazilian beliefs of Yoruba derivation.
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Callisto Scarp Mosaic
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This view taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 17, 2016, features Liber Crater in Ceres' northern hemisphere, at right.
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The rim of the crater blocks sunlight coming from the right, creating a moody scene on Ceres. NASA's Dawn spacecraft took this image on June 16, 2016.
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AS08-12-2052 (21-27 Dec. 1968) --- This near-vertical photograph from the Apollo 8 spacecraft covers an area of approximately 50 x 50 statute miles within a 250-statute-miles-in-diameter crater on the lunar farside. The center of this large crater is located at about 157 degrees west longitude and 4 degrees south latitude. The large crater in the center of the picture is about 20 statute miles in diameter.
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Meet Joe Green
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This image, taken on Oct. 18, 2016 from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows Occator Crater on Ceres, with its signature bright areas. The central bright spot, which harbors the brightest material on Ceres, is believed by scientists to contain a variety of salts.
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Boulders perched atop a wrinkle ridge in Mare Imbrium west of the Montes Teneriffe can be seen in this image taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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As NASA's Mariner 10 passed by Mercury on its second encounter with the planet on Sept. 21, 1974, this picture of a large circular (350 kilometer, 220 mile diameter) basin was obtained near the morning terminator.
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Anatomy of a Torn Comet
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This image of Eutropia AV-L-10, from the atlas of the giant asteroid Vesta, was created from images taken as NASA's Dawn mission flew around the object, also known as a protoplanet.
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Eternal Darkness of Petronius Crater
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Graben are common extensional features on the Moon as well as the other terrestrial planets and icy satellites. This graben formed within a larger graben as captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft features the distinctive crater Canuleia on the giant asteroid Vesta. Canuleia, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter, is distinguished by the rays of bright material that streak out from it.
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The One-Two Punch
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This image made with data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows pit chains on dwarf planet Ceres called Samhain Catenae. Scientists created this image by draping the grayscale mosaic of Ceres' surface onto the shape model of the dwarf planet. The arrows in the image point to a few of the pit chains investigated in a 2017 study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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Mercury's northern region is dominated by expansive smooth plains, created by huge amounts of volcanic material flooding across Mercury's surface in the past, as seen by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows impact ejecta deposits dominating asteroid Vesta's landscape. This impact ejecta material was ejected from an impact crater located outside the imaged area.
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This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 14, 2015, shows an intriguing mountain on dwarf planet Ceres protruding from a relatively smooth area.
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This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows a portion of the southern hemisphere of dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers).
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Catullus in 3-D
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On March 18, 2011, NASA's MESSENGER made history by becoming the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury. Eleven days later, the spacecraft captured the first image ever obtained from Mercury orbit, shown here on the left.
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This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows the surface of dwarf planet Ceres at mid-latitudes, from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The image was taken on Sept. 21, 2015, and has a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel.
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows Sekhet Crater on Ceres has prominent shadows accentuating its central peak and mounds of material that have slumped downward from its walls.
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Dust Devils Together
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft of asteroid Vesta shows Sossia crater, which is the crater partially surrounded by dark material. Sossia crater has a reasonably fresh rim and patches of dark material cropping out around part of this rim.
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LROC PDS Release Number 5
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The View from Low Orbit
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Radar-bright Craters in Goethe
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft of asteroid Vesta shows Aquilia crater located in Pinaria quadrangle, in Vesta's southern hemisphere. The especially degraded bottom rim was probably formed by debris slumping into the crater.