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Shadows on Ceres

Shadows on Ceres
Shadows on Ceres Dawn took this photo on Oct. 17 at an altitude of 920 miles (1,480 kilometers). Above and to the right of center, part of the wall of a crater has collapsed, allowing material to flow into the larger crater. The area covered by the flow is less densely cratered than the surrounding terrain, because it is younger. We have seen how scientists use the number and size of craters to date geological features (no results are available yet in this area). The larger crater is Ghanan, one of the names of a Mayan maize god, although the devastating flow may not have been good for the maize harvest when the collapse occurred. Ghanan Crater, with an average diameter of 42 miles (68 kilometers), is on this map at 77°N, 31°E. Full image (with different picture adjustments) and caption. NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA