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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Dawn Visible and Infrared Spectrometer coverage at end of HAMO

Dawn Visible and Infrared Spectrometer coverage at end of HAMO
Dawn Visible and Infrared Spectrometer coverage at end of HAMO This mosaic shows the location of the data acquired by VIR (visible and infrared spectrometer) during the HAMO (high-altitude mapping orbit) phase of the Dawn mission. VIR can image Vesta in a number of different wavelengths of light, ranging from the visible to the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This mosaic shows the images taken at a wavelength of 550 nanometers, which is in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. During HAMO VIR obtained more than 4.6 million spectra of Vesta. It is clear from this image that the VIR observations are widely distributed across Vesta, which results in a global view of the spectral properties of Vesta's surface. Observations taken during LAMO will be at higher resolution but will cover a smaller area than those taken during HAMO. This image shows Vesta's southern hemisphere (lower part of the image) and equatorial regions (upper part of the image). NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained these VIR images with its visible and infrared spectrometer in September and October 2011. NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / ASI / INAF / IAPS