Sinuous Gullies in Cornelia Crater

This image shows examples 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 the straighter, wider, shorter gullies that scientists have designated as "Type-A" gullies. Scientists think these two gully types have different formation mechanisms.

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

An annotated version highlights the gullies with white lines.

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