Sinuous Gullies, Close-up

This image shows a close-up of long, narrow, sinuous gullies that scientists on NASA's Dawn mission have found on the giant asteroid Vesta. The crater shown here is called Cornelia. The gullies in Cornelia – called "Type-B" gullies – are different from straighter, wider, shorter gullies that scientists have called "Type-A" gullies. Scientists think these two varieties of gullies have different formation mechanisms.

An annotated version highlights the gullies with white lines. The Type-B gullies often end in lobe-shaped deposits, which are noted with railroad-track lines.

This image was obtained by Dawn's framing camera on Jan. 11, 2012. North is up in this image.

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