Astronomy Picture of the Day - powered by LUNEXIT.IT

This NASA - Spacecraft Dawn FC-Cam (Framing Camera) image is dominated by a very interesting Impact Crater located on the Giant Asteroid 4-Vesta: it is the Caparronia Impact Crater. Caparronia Crater is approximately 55 Km in diameter and has a mostly fresh, irregularly shaped Rim. It also has a curved, linear mound running across most of its base and therefore, for all of these reasons, Caparronia is a very peculiar and highly distinctive Crater for 4-Vesta and this is why it was chosen to name the Quadrangle in which it is situated.

The (always relatively speaking) smooth Region which surrounds Caparronia Crater is most likely made by fine Impact Ejecta, which were thrown out from the Crater at the time of its formation. Other impact related features are the linear chains of small (such as less than 1 km wide) Secondary Craters that can be seen throughout the image. Some particularly distinctive Crater Chains are also visible in the bottom part of the frame.
Secondary Crater Chains are formed when relatively large debris (i.e.: dust, small and medium-sized rocks and boulders) are ejected from an impact and then skip (they actually bounce and slide on the concerned Surface, like flat stones bounce and keep moving forward when thrown on - even relatively - peaceful waters) along the Surface. There are also some linear scars running diagonally across the image, which are due to debris scouring across the Surface.

This image is centered in 4-Vesta's Caparronia Quadrangle and the center Latitude and Longitude of the image is 52,5° North and 149.2° East. NASA's Dawn Spacecraft obtained this image with its Framing Camera (FC-Cam)on October 23rd 2011. This image was taken through the camera's clear filter. The distance to the Surface of 4-Vesta, at the time the picture was taken, was approx. 700 km and the image has a resolution of about 70 meters per pixel. This image was acquired during the HAMO (High Altitude Mapping Orbit) phase of the mission.

This frame has been colorized in Natural Colors (such as the colors that a perfect human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - Dawn Spacecraft and then looked down towards the Surface of 4-Vesta), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.