Lunar and Ceres Surface Features

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

Another Small Volcano

This image, taken on June 6, 2015 by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows Ceres from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers). A mountain can be seen on the left. The western edge of Haulani crater can be seen on the upper right at the limb.

This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 6, 2015, features a tall mountain on Ceres that is 4 miles (6 kilometers) high -- among the tallest features seen on Ceres to date.

A Constellation Program Region of Interest near the northeast edge of the unusually large melt pond adjacent to the lunar far side crater King.

Three Craters in One

Gusev Crater, here we come!

This photo of Ceres and one of its key landmarks, Ahuna Mons, was one of the last views Dawn transmitted before it depleted its remaining hydrazine and completed its mission. This view, which faces south, was captured on Sept. 1, 2018 at an altitude of 2,220 miles (3,570 kilometers) as the spacecraft was ascending in its elliptical orbit. At its lowest point, the orbit dipped down to only about 22 miles (35 kilometers), which allowed Dawn to acquire very high-resolution images in this final phase of its mission. Some of the close-up images of Ceres are shown here. Ahuna Mons is about 12 miles (20 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) high and displays sodium carbonate along its flanks. This is the most recent of a potential two dozen cryovolcanoes whose remnants are found across Ceres' surface.

This pair of THEMIS infrared images shows the so-called 'face on Mars' landform viewed during both the day and night.

This view taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 17, 2016 from Ceres' northern hemisphere shows parts of Datan Crater (at left) and Geshtin Crater (at right).

Tear-drop Volcano

This image, made using images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows Occator crater on Ceres, home to a collection of intriguing bright spots.

After passing Mercury the first time and making a trip around the Sun, NASA's Mariner 10 again flew by Mercury on Sept. 21, 1974. The south pole is located on the right hand edge of Chao Meng Fu crater that has only its rim sticking up into the light.

Verlaine Shot Rimbaud

Interesting Structural Features on Eros

Close-up of Craters Hosting Radar-bright Deposits

A Buried Crater

Looking Toward Mercury's North Pole

In this image of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, a younger, fresher crater lies to next to the older, larger crater named Messor. Messor, which is named for the Roman god of the harvesting and cutting of grain.

This Cerean crater, which is covered in ridges and steep slopes, called scarps, was captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Dec. 23, 2015. These features likely resulted when the crater partly collapsed during its formation.

Voil! Mercury's Atget

Hokusai Paints a Wave of Rays

Dione: Magnified View

Craters of the Ages

Craters and Layers

This image of asteroid Vesta from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows many curved ridges that are typical of Vesta's southern hemisphere. This image is located in Vesta's Sextilia quadrangle, in Vesta's southern hemisphere.

A Smorgasbord of Landforms

Extensive Smooth Plains on Mercury

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of an unusual hill on asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on August 18, 2011. The image has a resolution of about 260 meters per pixel.

Back in the Saddle Again

At the center of this NAC image is the crater Navoi, named in November 2008 for the Uzbek poet Alisher Navoi (1441-1501).

This image of Rheasilvia AV-L-30, 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.

Rupes, Rupes, Every Where

Exploring the Evolution of the Caloris Basin

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft of asteroid Vesta shows Serena crater, located in the Sextilia quadrangle, southern hemisphere. A mound of material is seen in the center of the crater and many small craters scattered over Serena crater.

Rhea - Icy Cratered Surface

A Face in the Dark...

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 16, 2015, from a distance of 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers).

Bright Crater Wall

This image taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the spectacularly preserved viscous flow on the NE rim of Byrgius A crater.

Interesting Features in Spirit's Uphill View

Big Boulders

(I Can't Get No) Saturation

Gale Crater, home to NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, shows a new face in this mosaic image made using data from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.

320 meter block of ejecta in Tycho crater covered by a veneer of impact melt.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows two different resolution views of the ejecta blanket of Vesta's 'snowman craters.' The snowman-like pattern of these craters is clearly seen in the center of the left hand image.

Materials excavated during formation of this ~450 m diameter impact crater have an unusual two-toned character, likely a reflection of heterogeneity in the target materials. This crater occurs in Balmer Basin. This image was taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnai

This mosaic of oblique images from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft highlights the spectacular interior of Abedin crater. The crater floor is covered with once-molten rock melted by the impact event that formed Abedin.

Love's Secret Domain

This image was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on July 16, 2018 from an altitude of about 35 miles (56 kilometers). The center of this picture is located at about 36.5 degrees south latitude and 247.3 degrees east longitude.

Rockin' Rachmaninoff

It was a Dark and Stormy Night

Today's VIS image contains a relatively young crater and its ejecta. Layering in the ejecta is visible and relates to the shock waves from the impact. This unnamed crater is located in Arabia Terra.

Volcanoes in Lacus Mortis

Craters Young and Old

These apparent brightness and topography images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in asteroid Vesta's Bellicia quadrangle, in Vesta's northern hemisphere.

Raphael's Colorful Palette

In this dramatic scene, an unnamed crater in Mercury's northern volcanic plains is bathed in darkness as the sun sits low on the horizon. Rising from the floor of the crater is its central peak, a small mountain resulting from the crater's formation. A central peak is a type of crater morphology that lies between "simple" and "peak ring" in the range of crater morphology on Mercury. This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation. Targeted observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions much higher than the 200-meter/pixel morphology base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution, but typically several areas of high scientific interest are imaged in this mode each week. The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System'

Earthrise by Lunar Orbiter

On the Bright Side

Say Aah!

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

Dark and Explosive

A Tale of Two Basins

Crossing Paths. At the left edge of this color view is a relatively fresh crater as seen by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft.

Firdousi's Smooth Plains & Crater Chains

AS08-12-2196 (21-27 Dec. 1968) --- An oblique view from the Apollo 8 spacecraft looking eastward across the lunar surface from about 115 degrees east longitude to the horizon near 180 degrees east longitude. The crater Tsiolkovsky in the center of the picture is 150 kilometers wide and is located at 129 degrees east longitude and 21 degrees south latitude. While in lunar orbit, Apollo 8 moved toward the camera position over the terrain along the left (north) side of this photograph.

The gold line on this image shows NASA's Opportunity's route from the landing site, in upper left, to the area it is investigating on the western rim of Endeavour Crater as of the rover's 10th anniversary on Mars, in Earth years.

The red dot marks the final landing location of NASA's InSight lander in this annotated image of the surface of Mars, taken by the THEMIS camera on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter in 2015. A version with latitude and longitude is also available. The landing ellipse on this map covers an area within which the spacecraft had about a 99 percent chance of landing when targeted for the center of the ellipse. It is about 81 miles (130 kilometers) long, generally west to east, and about 17 miles (27 kilometers) wide. The base map is a mosaic of daytime thermal images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. THEMIS was developed and is operated by Arizona State University, Tempe.

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in asteroid Vesta's Urbinia quadrangle, in Vesta's southern hemisphere. Urbinia crater is the large, irregularly shaped crater, Sossia the middle-sized crater.

S71-44668 (31 July-2 Aug. 1971) --- An oblique view of the crater Humboldt, as photographed by the Fairchild metric camera in the Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) bay of the Apollo 15 Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit. This view is looking southerly. Humboldt, which is 200 kilometers (124 statute miles) in diameter, is located at 81 degrees east longitude and 27 degrees south latitude. The three-inch mapping camera was one of eight lunar orbital science experiments located in the SIM bay.

Luna 21 lander delivered the Lunokhod 2 rover to the floor of Le Monnier crater in January 1973. This image taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter also shows the rover's tracks.

An annotated mosaic from the Rosetta spacecraft shows 'Site J,' the primary landing site on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the mission's Philae lander.

Twenty Something

This photo of Ceres and the bright regions in Occator Crater was one of the last views NASA's Dawn spacecraft transmitted before it depleted its remaining hydrazine and completed its mission. This view, which faces south, was captured on Sept. 1, 2018 at an altitude of 2,340 miles (3,370 kilometers) as the spacecraft was ascending in its elliptical orbit. At its lowest point, the orbit dipped down to only about 22 miles (35 kilometers), which allowed Dawn to acquire very high-resolution images in this final phase of its mission. Some of the close-up images of Occator Crater are shown here. Occator Crater is 57 miles (92 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep and holds the brightest area on Ceres, Cerealia Facula in its center and Vinalia Faculae in its western side. This region has been the subject of intense interest since Dawn's approach to the dwarf planet in early 2015.

Gazing Over a Cratered World

These images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft are located in asteroid Vesta's Numisia quadrangle, a few degrees below Vesta's equator.

Spirit's Traverse, Sols 1 to 1,386

NASA's Viking 1 landing site is shown in this commemorative image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft to celebrate the July 20, 1969 and 1976 anniversaries of NASA's Apollo 11 and Viking 1 landings on the Moon and Mars, respectively.

Shiny and New

View of lunar farside showing crater Tsiolkovsky, as photographed by crew of Apollo 13 mission during their lunar pass, Johnson Space Center, NASA , April 14, 1970

A Spectacular Rayed Crater

These images are located in asteroid Vesta's Rheasilvia quadrangle, near Vesta's south pole. These images are centered on the large Tarpeia crater.

Vintage Photograph. Overall view of interior of a moon crater.

Photographie Lunaire Albategnius - Triesnecker - Manilius. Dated: 1903. Dimensions: image: 56.99 x 46.51 cm (22 7/16 x 18 5/16 in.) sheet: 73.66 x 59.69 cm (29 x 23 1/2 in.). Medium: photogravure. Museum: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Author: Loewy et Puiseux.

Cuts Right Through

The Geodesy Campaign

Kasei Valles is one of the largest outflow channels on Mars. Kasei Valles stretches some 2,000 km across the face of Mars and empties into the Chryse basin. THEMIS.

Mars Surfaces at 15.6N Latitude, March 1999

On Mercury, NASA's MESSENGER shows the smooth floor of Titian is a brighter orange color than the surrounding area, likely due to being filled with volcanic material. Ejecta from Titian appears blue.

Clockwork Orange

The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004, inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track, to a point approaching the rim of Endeavour crater.

This Image Is Cool!

Ganymede Galileo Regio High Resolution Mosaic Shown in Context

Map of Tethys

How Common are Mare Pit Craters

Sinuous Chain of Depressions

AS16-122-19580 (16-27 April 1972) --- This vertical view shows the King Crater on the lunar surface. It was exposed with color positive film in a hand-held 70mm camera onboard the Command and Service Modules during the Apollo 16 mission's 98th orbit of the moon. Center point coordinates are located at 5.4 degrees north latitude and 120.8 degrees east longitude.

Etched Terrain

They Call Me Muddy Waters

The anaglyph shows Pwyll crater on Jupiter's icy satellite Europa, captured by NASA's Galileo Orbiter. 3D glasses are necessary to identify surface detail.

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