Asteroid and Planetary Surfaces

Images captured by spacecraft showing the rugged surfaces of asteroids and planets, highlighting craters, ejecta blankets, and geological features.

A wrinkle ridge within Brisbane Z crater in Mare Australe. This wrinkle ridge is located within the crater Brisbane Z.
A wrinkle ridge within Brisbane Z crater in Mare Australe. This wrinkle ridge is located within the crater Brisbane Z.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a part of the surface of asteroid Vesta, which is mantled (covered) by an ejecta blanket, evident as smoothly textured surface visible across the image.
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This image captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows small craters within Meanderi Crater on Ceres, which measures 64 miles (103 kilometers) in diameter.
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A faint double ring crater is seen at upper right in this picture of Mercury taken one hour and 40 minutes before NASA's Mariner 10's second rendezvous with the planet Sept. 21, 1975
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's sees hummocks and blocks on the ejecta blanket of Tsiolkovskiy crater.
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This image, taken on June 6, 2015 by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows a mountain on Ceres at center-left that is 4 miles (6 kilometers) high, from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) with a resolution of 1,400 feet (410 meters) per pixel.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows an ejecta blanket mantling the surface and obscuring older caters. The bright crater rim, seen in the middle right edge, is one of a group of craters which are the source of this ejecta blanket.
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This image of the region between Urvara Crater's eastern rim and Yalode Crater's western rim was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 20, 2018 from an altitude of about 1070 miles (1720 kilometers). The center of this picture is located at about 54 degrees south in latitude and 272 degrees east in longitude.
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A wrinkle ridge within Brisbane Z crater in Mare Australe. This wrinkle ridge is located within the crater Brisbane Z.
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NASA's Dawn mission has found that craters on Ceres show a diversity of shapes that provide important clues about the structure of Ceres' subsurface; shown here is Fejokoo, a polygonal crater.
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This scene viewed by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Oct. 20, 2016, from Ceres features terrain near the rim of the large crater named Kerwan, at lower left. A much smaller, fresher crater called Cacaguat is seen in the lower right corner.
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this view of Azacca Crater on Ceres. The rim of this crater has terraces descending from its rim down to its floor. The crater's floor is relatively free of large impact scars and is named for the Haitian god of agriculture
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Textured Terrain
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Final Eros Images: Range 1,150 meters (3,773 feet)
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This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft captures the northern rim of Toharu Crater on Ceres. Dawn captured the scene on Dec. 24, 2015 from its low-altitude mapping orbit (LAMO), at an approximate altitude of 240 miles (385 kilometers) above Ceres.
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One of the most prominent lobate scarps (Discovery Scarp), photographed by NASA's Mariner 10 during it's first encounter with Mercury, is located at the center of this image (extending from the top to near bottom).
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This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows a portion of the northern hemisphere of dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The image was taken on Sept. 22, 2015, and has a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel.
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This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of the Asteroid Vesta, shows the Arruntia crater, which is the large crater offset to the top right of the center of the image. Slightly over half of Arruntia crater is covered in a large shadow. But, the non-shadowed part of Arruntia shows impressive details. There is bright material cropping out slightly below the left rim and just below the top and bottom rims there are distinct ridges of material, which are probably formed by material from the rim cascading down towards the center of Arruntia. This image is located in Vesta's Bellicia quadrangle, in Vesta's northern hemisphere. NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on Oct. 24, 2011.
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Where the Craters Have No Name
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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 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). Urvara crater, named for the Indian and Iranian deity of plants and fields, is featured.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a portion of Ceres known as Erntedank Planum, a broad plateau 345 miles (555 kilometers) wide. The terrain seen here lies just to the southeast of Occator Crater, home of Ceres' brightest region.
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Pit-iful!
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This image of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows terrain in the southern hemisphere within the large crater called Yalode. The prominent crater at top-right is called Lono. The crater directly below it is called Besua.
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Portrait of a Scarp
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This Dawn framing camera (FC) image of steroid Vesta shows Fabia crater, which is the large crater offset to the bottom right of the center of the image. Fabia crater is very distinctive because the two sides of its rim have very different states of freshness. In this image the bottom part of the rim is distinct and fresh but the top part of the rim is much more rounded and degraded. This image is located in Vesta's Numisia quadrangle, in Vesta's northern hemisphere. NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on Oct. 19, 2011.
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Landslides on Callisto
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This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows unnamed craters high in the northern hemisphere of Ceres. A bright patch of material can be seen on the upper wall of the large crater (near the lower left corner of the view).
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This image of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows a giant, ancient impact crater with smaller craters in its interior. The large crater shows partial terracing on its southeast rim, whereas the north part is almost fully degraded.
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This image of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows a 23-mile-wide (37 kilometer-wide) crater called Tupo, which features a curved central peak complex and terraces.
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This view of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows Tupo Crater (22 miles, 36 kilometers wide), at upper left, with its sharp rim and prominent central peak.
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Terrain shown in this view from Ceres lies within the large, southern hemisphere impact basin named Zadeni. NASA's Dawn spacecraft took this image on June 17, 2016.
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Ikapati Crater on Ceres is seen at top right in this image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft taken on Oct. 24, 2016. Ikapati has a complex of central peaks and roughly parallel fractures on its floor.
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The terraced rim of the large crater named Urvara can be seen at the upper left in this view from Ceres. This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows terrain in the southern hemisphere of the dwarf planet.
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of the floor of a crater in the Mare Frigoris.
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This image, from NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft which launched in 1974, shows plains filling this basin are uniformly brighter and slightly redder than the surrounding cratered terrain.
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This image taken NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a high-resolution view of part of the floor of Riccioli Crater. The view is centered on the boundary between a spur of the crater's central peak materials and volcanic lava flow deposits.
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Deformation: Discovery
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The scarp cutting through this crater was imaged as NASA's MESSENGER approached the planet during the mission's second Mercury flyby.
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This NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows boulders on a wrinkle ridge in Mare Crisium.
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Evidence of Volcanism on Mercury: It's the Pits
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spies many boulder trails are found on the lunar crater walls and basin massifs. Some of the trails are smooth and nearly straight while others are curvy or gouge into the surface.
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Now Introducing: Eminescu
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This image taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows Emesh, a crater on Ceres. Emesh, named after the Sumerian god of vegetation and agriculture, is 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide. Located at the edge of the Vendimia Planitia, the floor of this crater is asymmetrical with terraces distributed along the eastern rim. Additionally, this image shows many subtle linear features that are likely the surface expressions of faults. These faults play a big role in shaping Ceres' craters, leading to non-circular craters such as Emesh. To the left of Emesh in this view, a much older crater of similar size has mostly been erased by impacts and their ejecta. Dawn took this image on May 11, 2016, from its low-altitude mapping orbit, at a distance of about 240 miles (385 kilometers) above the surface. The center coordinates of this image are 11 degrees north latitude, 158 degrees east longitude.
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This Ceres scene captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows an ancient crater wall that has been disrupted, possibly by a landslide.
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This image of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows Sintana Crater (36 miles, 58 kilometers wide) at top, just right of center. The rim of a large crater called Zadeni (80 miles, 128 kilometers wide), is seen at the bottom of the image.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft of asteroid Vesta shows Teia crater, which is the crater with bright and dark material. There is mostly bright material in Teia crater but there is also a patch of dark material on one side.
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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 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The image, with a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel, was taken on August 21, 2015.
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A Quiet Night Thought
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows an area in the northern hemisphere of Ceres. At upper left, material from the rim of a fresher crater appears to have slumped into its neighbor.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the edge of Ikapati crater on Ceres, at upper right. Dawn took this image on June 12, 2016, from its low-altitude mapping orbit, at a distance of about 240 miles (385 kilometers) above the surface.
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This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, captured on June 1, 2016, shows terrain on Ceres directly south of Kupalo Crater. The area is blanketed by smooth ejecta from Kupalo.
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's looks at a terraced wall in Burg Crater.
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All Quiet on the Northern Front
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This scene was imaged by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft's Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) during the spacecraft's flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008.
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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 September 9, 2015, and has a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel.
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Exposed boulders are clustered on the crest of a sharply defined wrinkle ridge.
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To Ngoc Van's Central Pit
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows many linear and curvilinear grooves running roughly diagonally across asteroid Vesta's Gegania quadrangle.
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A Bright Spot in the Latest Imaging
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MESSENGER Gets Closer to Mercury than Ever Before. This image is one of the highest resolution images taken by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft to date. It features a field of secondary craters in Mercury's northern smooth plains.
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A Tale of Two Craters
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This image of Octavia AV-L-19, 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 from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a close up image of two of the craters that make up the three 'Snowman' craters on asteroid Vesta.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows an unnamed impact feature that lies on the northern rim of Chaminuka Crater in Ceres' southern hemisphere.
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. First NAC Image Obtained in Mercury Orbit
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Crater Close-Up
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(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World
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Cat's Eye
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Small fractures in the mare floor of Tsiolkovskiy Crater.
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This image of Juling and Kupalo Craters was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 25, 2018 from an altitude of about 855 miles (1380 kilometers). The center coordinates of this image are about 38 degrees south in latitude and 173 degrees east in longitude.
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This view obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft during its Survey orbit illustrates the diversity and complexity of Ceres' geology. It shows familiar features Occator Crater with its bright deposits (called faculae) of carbonates and other salts, a series of linear features (at right) called Samhain Catenae, and another large crater on the right side of the image called Kirnis. A relatively fresh crater called Lociyo, superimposed on an older crater, can be seen toward the bottom left of the picture. Studying the morphologies and relationships between various types of geological features can help scientists reconstruct Ceres' history. Occator appears to be one of the youngest features in this picture, except for a couple of smaller craters. The 71-mile-wide (115-kilometer-wide) Kirnis Crater on the other hand is an old, eroded crater. It owes its peculiar polygonal shape in part to its overlap with one of the Samhain Catenae. This illustrates the role of fractures in driving the geometry
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The craters Takel and Cozobi are featured in this image of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Takel is the young crater with bright material on the left of this image, and Cozobi is the sharply defined crater just below center.
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As NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft approached Mercury on Jnuary 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) snapped this image of the crater Matisse.
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Oxo Crater and its surroundings are featured in this image of Ceres' surface from NASA's Dawn spacecraft taken on Oct. 18, 2016.
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A Cubist's Crater
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A Newly Identified Candidate for an Explosive Volcanic Vent on Mercury
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An area along the rim of the crater at the center of this view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, has collapsed, producing a lobe-shaped feature where the material settled.
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Montes Pyrenaeus meets Mare Nectaris in this image taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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Lichtenberg crater is of Eratosthenian age, located in western Oceanus Procellarum. It is named after George C. Lichtenberg, a German professor of experimental physics (16th century).
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Older Smooth Plains on Mercury
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During its second encounter with Mercury on Sept. 21, 1974, NASA's Mariner 10 took this picture of the planet's South Polar Region. Many of the craters have denuded rims peppered by smaller craters.
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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, with a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel, was taken on August 26, 2015.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, taken June 8, 2016, shows an area within Ezinu Crater on Ceres. Ezinu, which is 72 miles wide, was named for the Sumerian goddess of grain. Part of the crater's eastern rim is visible along the right side of the ima
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Beautiful Bartok
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Intercrater plains and heavily cratered terrain typical of much of Mercury outside the area affected by the formation of the Caloris basin are shown in this image taken during the NASA's Mariner 10's first encounter with Mercury in 1974.
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This image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows a small portion of the interior of Scarlatti basin. The image is located just to the side of a large pit that lies along part of Scarlatti's peak ring. This pit may have formed by explosive volcanism.
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This is a view from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of a very young impact crater in Balmer basin. The dark streamers are impact melt splashes thrown out during the crater formation.
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft took this view from Ceres on June 16, 2016, showing Ernutet Crater (32 miles, 52 kilometers in diameter) at top.
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Elysium Mons Wind Streak
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He Will Not Be Permanently Damaged
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows highlands terrain inside the Dante Crater.
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This image was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on July 16, 2018 from an altitude of about 58 miles (93 kilometers). The center of this picture is located at about 18.5 degrees north latitude and 240.9 degrees east longitude.
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This image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows a portion of the northern hemisphere of dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The image, with a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel, was taken on August 21, 2015.
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Situated high in Mercury's southern hemisphere, NASA's MESSENGER sees Han Kan, a 50-km-diameter impact crater with a well preserved central peak and a smooth floor that is likely solidified impact melt.
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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft of asteroid Vesta shows Canuleia crater, a large, irregularly shaped crater. Other interesting features of Canuleia include the diffuse bright material that is both inside and outside of its rim.
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This image shows cratered terrain on dwarf planet Ceres, seen by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 15, 2016. The image is centered at approximately 3 degrees north latitude, 208 degrees east longitude.
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Eratosthenes exhibits terraces within its rim.
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An Optical Illusion
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Kupalo Crater, taken Dec. 21, 2016 by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows one of the youngest craters on Ceres. The crater has bright material exposed on its rim and walls, which could be salts. Its flat floor likely formed from impact melt and debris.
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This mosaic of three images was taken by NASA's Dawn framing camera during the high-altitude mapping orbit over the giant asteroid Vesta. The eastern rim is higher than the western rim, and the overall topography is downhill from east to west.
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This image of a boulder field near Ceres' Occator Crater's eastern rim was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 9, 2018 from an altitude of about 30 miles (48 kilometers).