Flow Around a Crater on Ceres

Ceres surface shows evidence for different types of flows that indicate the presence of ice in the regolith. One type of flow encircles the large impact crater at right in this image taken by NASA Dawn spacecraft.

One type of flow encircles the large impact crater at right in this image. Scientists see features in this flow that indicate a low degree of internal friction within its material, meaning it was able to flow easily and far from its source. This could be due to the incorporation of a significant amount of liquid water or water vapor into the ejecta blanket. This flow also shows a large ridge along its edge (seen most clearly just to the left of the large crater). These features are commonly associated with flows on Mars called "fluidized ejecta blankets."

This feature is located southwest of Kerwan crater at 40 degrees south latitude, 109 degrees east longitude. This is in the vicinity of the latitudes where Dawn's gamma ray and neutron spectrometer (GRaND) instrument sensed the presence of ice in the first meter of Ceres' regolith.

The image was taken on August, 7, 2016 from an altitude of about 240 miles (390 kilometers) above Ceres. The image resolution is about 120 feet (35 meters) per pixel.

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21404