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Canyons on Ceres (detail view)

Canyons on Ceres (detail view)
Canyons on Ceres (detail view) Dawn saw this rugged terrain on August 15, 2016, from an altitude of 240 miles (385 kilometers). This is the southeastern end of a network of canyons in Yalode Crater called Nar Sulcus. (Nar is from a modern pomegranate feast in part of Azerbaijan. A sulcus is a set of parallel furrows or ridges.) We saw the rest of these canyons as they extend far to the northwest here. Geological structures like this have been found on some icy moons of the outer planets. The tremendous impact that formed Yalode heated the mixture of ice, rock and salt, which is a common combination on Ceres, perhaps causing a large volume to melt. When it subsequently refroze, it would have expanded (just as water does when it turns to ice in your freezer), and that may have created stresses that fractured the ground, forming Nar Sulcus. You can locate this scene in the eastern part of Yalode on this map near 41°S, 281°E. With a diameter of 162 miles (260 kilometers), Yalode is the second largest crater on Ceres. We have presented other photos of the crater, most recently in January. Full image and caption. NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA