Vesta in natural color

Filed under best of, pretty pictures, global views, amateur image processing, asteroids, asteroid 4 Vesta, Dawn

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Vesta is a colorful world; craters of a variety of ages make splashes of lighter and darker brown against its surface. This photo was processed from data acquired on July 24, 2011, from a distance of about 5200 kilometers, during the third "rotation characterization" observation by Dawn.

NASA / JPL / MPS / DLR / IDA / Björn Jónsson

Read this blog entry for more information on the processing required to make this global view.

The view above is in natural color. The one below employs a wider range of wavelengths than the human eye can see, in order to emphasize color variations across the surface.

NASA / JPL / MPS / DLR / IDA / Björn Jónsson

Vesta in enhanced color

Images taken through two infrared filters (918 and 749 nanometers) and a blue filter were combined in order to emphasize color differences across Vesta. Particularly noticeable is a bright orange splash around the crater Oppia in the center. The data were taken from a distance of 5200 kilometers on July 24, 2011.