Juling and Kupalo Craters

This region on Ceres, located in the vicinity of Toharu Crater (see PIA19624), presents two small craters: Juling at top (12 miles, 20 kilometers in diameter) and Kupalo at bottom (16 miles, 26 kilometers in diameter). A broader view of these craters can be found in PIA20142. Both craters are relatively young, as indicated by their sharp rims.

These features are located at about the same latitude (about 38 degrees south) as Tawals Crater (see PIA21750) and show similar crater shapes and rugged terrain. These features may reflect the presence of ice below the surface. Subtle bright features can be distinguished in places. These likely were excavated by small impacts and landslides along the slopes of the crater rims. This suggests that a different type of material, likely rich in salts, is present in the shallow subsurface.

Juling is named after the Sakai/Orang Asli spirit of the crops from Malaysia, and Kupalo gets its name from the Russian god of vegetation and of the harvest.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft acquired this picture on August 24, 2016. The image was taken during Dawn's extended mission, from its low altitude mapping orbit at about 240 miles (385 kilometers) above the surface. The center coordinates of this image are 38 degrees south latitude, 165 degrees east longitude.

Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team.

For a complete list of Dawn mission participants, visit http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission.

For more information about the Dawn mission, visit http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.