Vesta: Impact Crater Topography from Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 Images

Details Vesta: Impact Crater Topography from Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 Images Vesta: Impact Crater Topography from Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 Images

Jul 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997dps....29.0711t&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #29, #07.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 29, p.973

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Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images obtained in May 1996 at scales of 36 km/pixel have provided new topographic information on Vesta, the probable parent body for the HED (basaltic achondrite) meteorites. The most significant topographic feature is a 450 km diameter crater centered near the south pole, containing a large central peak. The placement of the crater and the low phase angle of observations (5deg )allow limb coordinate measurements of the crater's morphologic characteristics. It is about 8 km deep, its rim rises in places an additional 8 to 14 km, and its central peak is about 13 km high. Simple gravity scaling from the Moon to Vesta (g ~ 22 cm/s(2) ) suggests this crater would be equivalent to a 60 km lunar crater, securely in the size range of craters with central peaks. Other craters on Vesta are up to 150 km in diameter and a few km deep. Hydrocode results of Asphaug (1997, submitted) suggest the creation of a 450 km impact crater could launch multi-km-sized fragments to escape from Vesta (Binzel and Xu, Science260, 186, 1993). Color data from the HST images show at least part of the impact crater to have a deep mafic absorption band, as measured through the 0.673/0.953-mu m and 0.673/1.042-mu m filter ratios. These ratios are consistent with plutonic basalts and/or the excavation of olivine mantle material. Based on observations made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., under NASA Contract NAS 5-26555. Work supported in part by STScI grant GO-6481.

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