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Dawn's View of Vesta

Description 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.

 

The view looks down at Vesta's north pole, which is in the middle of the image. When Dawn arrived in July 2011, Vesta's north pole was in darkness. After more than a year at Vesta, the sunlight has now made it to Vesta's north pole.

 

This image was taken by Dawn's framing camera on Aug. 25, 2012 PDT (Aug. 26, 2012 CET). Dawn escaped from Vesta's orbit on Sept. 4, 2012 PDT (Sept. 5, 2012 CET).

 

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Image Number: PIA15676

Date: August 25, 2012

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Uploaded on January 1, 2015
Taken on August 25, 2012