Exploration of Celestial Bodies

This cluster features detailed images of moons and asteroids showcasing craters, terrain features, and shadows, set against a dark backdrop.

The Crown of Tethys

Assets in this Story

The Crown of Tethys

Great White Splat

The shadowy outlines of the terrain in Vesta's northern region are visible in this image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. The image comes from the last sequence of images Dawn obtained of the giant asteroid Vesta as it departed the giant asteroid.

Occator Crater and Ahuna Mons appear together in this view obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Feb. 11, 2017. Ahuna Mons, on the limb at right, is a mountain 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) tall. Occator hosts the mysterious 'bright spots' called faculae.

The Cassini spacecraft stares directly into the great Odysseus impact basin on Tethys. Peaks near the crater's center cast long shadows toward the east. The elevated eastern rim of the crater catches sunlight

A World of Hurt

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 7, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers).

Penelope on Tethys

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 7, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers).

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft April 24 to 26, 2015, from a distance of 8,500 miles (13,500 kilometers).

$The famed wispy terrain on Saturn's moon Dione is front and center in this recent image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The 'wisps' are fresh fractures on the trailing hemisphere of the moon's icy surface.$

Dione: North Polar View

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft April 24 to 26, 2015, from a distance of 8,500 miles (13,500 kilometers).

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of terrestrial mountains on asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on Aug. 26, 2011. The image has a resolution of about 260 meters per pixel.

Highest Resolution View of Dione

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of the giant asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on July 9, 2011. Vesta is also considered a protoplanet because it is a large body that almost became a planet.

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft April 24 to 26, 2015, from a distance of 8,500 miles (13,500 kilometers).

Dione's Icy Wisps

Saturn's Moon Dione Seen by Cassini

A Fresh Face

Dione in Full View

A world whose mysteries are just coming to light, Enceladus has enchanted scientists and non-scientists alike. With its potential for near-surface liquid water, the icy moon may be the latest addition to the list of possible abodes for life

Diversity of Impacts

Eros' Battered Surface

Sunlight illuminates the deep cut of Ithaca Chasma on Saturn's moon Tethys. Ithaca Chasma runs roughly north-south for more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) on Tethys in this image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Youthful Enceladus

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft April 24 to 26, 2015, from a distance of 8,500 miles (13,500 kilometers).

Cassini captured this striking view of Saturn's moon Dione on July 23, 2012. Dione is about 698 miles (1,123 kilometers) across. Its density suggests that about a third of the moon is made up of a dense core (probably silicate rock) with the remainder of its material being water ice. At Dione's average temperature of -304 degrees Fahrenheit (-186 degrees Celsius), ice is so hard it behaves like rock. The image was taken with Cassini's narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 260,000 miles (418,000 kilometers) from Dione, through a polarized filter and a spectral filter sensitive to green light. The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captures a view of the southern latitudes of Saturn's tumbling moon Hyperion. Lit terrain seen here is mostly in the southern hemisphere of Hyperion. The south pole of the moon is near the bottom of the illuminated terrain.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks to the cratered surface of Saturn's second largest moon, Rhea.

This full view of the giant asteroid Vesta was taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, as part of a rotation characterization sequence on July 24, 2011, at a distance of 3,200 miles and shows impact craters of various sizes and grooves parallel to the equator.

Lunar crescent

This image from NASA's Dawn mission shows huge grooves on the giant asteroid Vesta that were the result of mega impacts at the south pole.

Saturn's rings appear curved in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which also shows the moon Janus in the distance. Janus is at the bottom of the image and is farther from the spacecraft than the rings are.

Two Very Different Asteroids

This image, taken by the framing camera instrument aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows the south polar region of this object, which has a diameter of 330 miles (530 kilometers). The image was taken through the clear filter on July 9, 2011, as part of a rotation characterization sequence, and it has a scale of about 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) per pixel. To enhance details, the resolution was enlarged to .6 miles (1 kilometer) per pixel. This region is characterized by rough topography, a large mountain, impact craters, grooves and steep scarps. The original image was map-projected, centered at 55 degrees southern latitude and 210 degrees eastern longitude.

NASA image release March 11, 2011 Caption The lunar farside as never seen before! LROC WAC orthographic projection centered at 180° longitude, 0° latitude.

Mosaic of Triton constructed from 16 individual images. After globally minimizing the camera pointing errors, the frames we reprocessed by map projections, photometric function removal and placement in the mosaic.

Wispy terrain stretches across the trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon Dione on the right of this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during the spacecraft's flyby on April 7, 2010.

Rhea in Saturnshine

This frame from an animated sequence of images shows northern terrain on the sunlit side of dwarf planet Ceres as seen by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on April 14 and 15, 2015.

Saturn's moon Mimas peeps out from behind the larger moon Dione in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Looking Toward the Limb

This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft April 24 to 26, 2015, from a distance of 8,500 miles (13,500 kilometers).

This mosaic was assembled using NAC images acquired as the MESSENGER spacecraft approached the planet during the mission's second Mercury flyby The Rembrandt impact basin is seen at the center of the mosaic.

Craters of all sizes litter the landscape on Dione. The larger craters in this view display prominent central peak

The Cassini spacecraft surveys the battered surface of icy Tethys. The great impact basin straddling the terminator is itself overprinted by many smaller impact sites

The sponge-like surface of Saturn's moon Hyperion is highlighted in this portrait from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, captured during the spacecraft's flyby on Sept. 16, 2011.

Saturn's impact-pummeled moon Hyperion stares back at NASA's Cassini spacecraft in this six-image mosaic, taken during the spacecraft's close approach on Sept. 26, 2005.

This image shows the location of the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed Sedna, in relation to the rest of the solar system in 2004.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of craters with bright features on asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on August 18, 2011. The image has a resolution of about 260 meters per pixel.

Inside Eros' Giant Gouge

Moon's North Pole

$Bright fractures creep across the surface of icy Dione. This extensive canyon system is centered on a region of terrain that is significantly darker that the rest of the moon. Part of the darker terrain is visible at right$

Miranda reveals a complex geologic history in this view, acquired by NASA's Voyager 2 on Jan. 24, 1986, around its close approach to the Uranian moon. At least three terrain types of different age and geologic style are evident.

Craters and Horizon of Mercury

Iapetus Seen by Cassini

Helene Attends Dione

Southern terrain on Saturn's moon Rhea is dimly illuminated by Saturnshine in this Cassini spacecraft view of the dark side of the moon.

This enhanced-color view of Saturn's moon Mimas was made from images obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. It highlights the bluish band around the icy moon's equator. The large round gouge on the surface is Herschel Crater.

The surface of Ceres is covered with craters of many shapes and sizes, as seen in this frame from an animation of a map of the dwarf planet's surface as seen by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Feb. 19, 2015.

$NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks across the surface of Saturn's moon Dione and details the 'wispy' terrain first chronicled by Voyager. This fractured terrain covers the trailing hemisphere of Dione.$

Possible Subsurface Ice on Phoebe

Crescent View of Mercury

NASA's Cassini spacecraft takes a close look at a row of craters on Saturn's moon Tethys during the spacecraft's April 14, 2012, flyby of the moon. Three large craters are visible along the terminator between day and night on Tethys.

MESSENGER Looks out on a Limb

Phoebe's Surprise

$Numerous blue-green fractures can be seen in this false-color mosaic taken during Cassini's second close flyby of Enceladus, on March 9, 2005$

1997 Martian Dust Storm

Miranda

Far Side of the Moon

Rhea's trailing hemisphere shows off its wispy terrain on the left of this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft which includes Saturn's rings in the distance.

Old and New Again

Two sources of light reveal the dramatic surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus in this NASA Cassini image in which geologic features give the appearance of the leathery skin of an elephant.

Odysseus the Great

Glimpses into Eros' Shadows

These three images of Neptune were acquired 90 minutes apart by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft on April 3, 1989, from a range of 208 million kilometers (129 million miles). Several atmospheric features (clouds) are visible.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft spies the large Penelope crater on Saturn's moon Tethys.

Eros' Angular Eastern End

This montage shows asteroid 951 Gaspra (top) compared with Deimos (lower left) and Phobos (lower right), the moons of Mars.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft spied details on the pockmarked surface of Saturn's moon Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across) during a moderately close flyby on Dec. 6, 2015. This is one of Cassini's highest resolution views of Prometheus.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft's February 2010 encounter with Calypso yielded this incredibly detailed view of this Trojan moon. Irregularly shaped Calypso is one of two Trojan moons of the larger moon Tethys.

Io - Volcanic Eruption

This montage shows the best views of Jupiter's four large and diverse 'Galilean' satellites as seen by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)

AS08-12-2209 (21-27 Dec. 1968) --- High altitude oblique view of the lunar surface, looking northeastward, as seen from the Apollo 8 spacecraft. The crater Joliot-Curie, about 175 kilometers in diameter and centered near 94 degrees east longitude and 27 degrees north latitude, is near the center of the left side of this photograph. The bright rayed crater near the horizon is probably located near 105 degrees east longitude and 45 degrees north latitude. Long, narrow rays that have been reported in the polar region of Earth facing hemisphere may radiate from this crater.

These two global images of Iapetus taken by NASA's Cassini's spacecraft show the extreme brightness dichotomy on the surface of this peculiar Saturnian moon.

Color on Rhea

Apollo 13 - Innumerable Craters Scar the Surface of the Moon

South Polar Close Up

This still from a movie shows an image taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft layered on a digital terrain model of an unusual hill containing a dark-rayed impact crater and nearby dark deposit on asteroid Vesta.

Smooth and Rough Enceladus

Countdown to Phoebe

MESSENGER Sees the Previously Unseen!

Earthrise by Lunar Orbiter

AS12-47-6876 (November 1969) --- An Apollo 12 high-oblique view of the lunar nearside looking northeast toward the crater Copernicus (in center near horizon), as photographed from lunar orbit. The shaded crater in the foreground is Reinhold. Reinhold B is the crater next to Reinhold which as the small crater in the center of it. Also, visible is the keyhole-shaped crater Fauth near the crater Copernicus.

Ganymede - high resolution

The battered features of the moon Rhea, seen at low phase, appear washed out by the sun.

Natural Color Image of Icy Tethys Seen by Cassini

This image, taken 147,000 miles (237,000 kilometers) from Ceres on January 25, 2015 by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, is part of a series of views representing the best look so far at the dwarf planet.

This global color mosaic of Triton, taken in 1989 by NASA's Voyager 2 shows Triton, the largest satellite of Neptune. Triton has the coldest surface known anywhere in the solar system; it is so cold that most of Triton's nitrogen is condensed as frost.

The Lunar South Pole

Dark-stained Iapetus

This impact crater in the high northern latitudes of Mercury was recently named for the Bangladeshi painter Zainul Abedin (1914-1976). Abedin exhibits a complex crater structure with a smooth floor, wall terraces, and a central peak complex.

This image obtained by NASA's Stardust spacecraft shows a side of the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 that has never been seen before; three terraces of different elevations are visible, with dark, banded scarps, or slopes, separating them.

Pop-Up Moon (non-stereo version)

Triton, Neptune's Largest Moon

After passing Mercury the first time and making a trip around the Sun, NASA's Mariner 10 again flew by Mercury on Sept. 21, 1974. This encounter brought the spacecraft in front of Mercury in the southern hemisphere.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft imaged the surface of Saturn's moon Helene as the it flew by the moon on Jan. 31, 2011. Helene is a 'Trojan' moon of Dione, named for the Trojan asteroids that orbit 60 degrees ahead of and behind Jupiter as it circles the Sun.

This Cassini image shows predominantly the impact-scarred leading hemisphere of Saturn's icy moon Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across). The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 12, 2004, at a distance of 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 30 degrees. The image scale is about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast enhanced to aid visibility. http //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06564

Bright lines creep across the face of Dione. The lines are systems of geologically fresh-looking canyons with bright, icy walls

Iapetus by Saturn Shine

Callisto Basin

NASA's Galileo imaging system captured this picture of the limb of the asteroid 243 Ida about 46 seconds after its closest approach on August 28, 1993, from a range of only 2480 kilometers.

December 31, 2004 - Dark-stained Iapetus. This near-true color view from Cassini reveals the colorful and intriguing surface of Saturn's moon Iapetus in unrivaled clarity. The use of color on Iapetus is particularly helpful for discriminating between shadows (which appear black) and the intrinsically dark terrain (which appears brownish). This image shows the northern part of the dark Cassini Regio and the transition zone to a brighter surface at high northern latitudes. Within the transition

Appearing like the swirls of marble, the wispy terrain of Saturn's moon Dione is captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in a dramatic display of light and dark. These wispy features are a system of braided canyons with bright walls.

Claire de Limb

Stressed Surface of Dione, From Cassini Probe

Zooming In On Enceladus (Mosaic)

MGS Approach Image - Elysium Region

Hyperion's Icy Surface

Only a sharp and careful eye can make out the subtle variations in Titan's clouds when viewed in visible light by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. This infrared image clearly reveals a band around the Titan's north pole.

This montage of 14 images (the time order is right to left, bottom to top) shows asterpod Ida as it appeared in the field of view of NASA's Galileo's camera on August 28, 1993.

The Saturnian Moon Enceladus

This view shows Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen by the OSIRIS wide-angle camera on ESA's Rosetta spacecraft on September 29, 2016, when Rosetta was at an altitude of 14 miles (23 kilometers).

Normal mammogram

Small Kuiper Belt Object

Enceladus Polar Maps - February 2010

Mosaic image of asteroid Bennu

Background Planet

The Terminator is Here - in Color!

This anaglyph shows a 3-D model of the protoplanet Vesta, using scientists' best guess to date of what the surface of the protoplanet might look like. It was created as part of an exercise for NASA's Dawn mission. 3D glasses are necessary.

This anaglyph of Ceres is part of a sequence of images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft April 24 to 26, 2015, from a distance of 8,500 miles (13,500 kilometers). 3-D glasses are needed to view this image.

This frame from an animation illustrates the benefits of observing asteroids in infrared light. It begins by showing two artistic interpretations of asteroids up close.

planet planet Copyright: xZoonar.com/angetax 5594317

At the Mountains of Madness

This montage of 11 images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft as it flew by the asteroid Gaspra on Oct. 1991, shows Gaspra growing progressively larger in the field of view of Galileo's solid-state imaging camera as the spacecraft approached the asteroid.

These two images show the different views of comet Tempel 1 seen by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft (left) and NASA's Stardust spacecraft (right).

Outlining MESSENGER's New Imaging Coverage

One Small Collection of Images, Many Giant Strides Forward for MESSENGER

Departure Mosaics from the Second Mercury Flyby

The 230-foot (70-meter) DSS-14 antenna at Goldstone, Ca. obtained these radar images of asteroid 2015 TB145 on Oct. 31, 2015.