Vesta is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of 525 kilometres (326 mi). It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after Vesta, the virgin goddess of home and hearth from Roman mythology.
Ceres is a dwarf planet in the middle main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was the first known asteroid, discovered on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo Astronomical Observatory in Sicily, and announced as a new planet. Ceres was later classified as an asteroid and then a dwarf planet, the only one not beyond Neptune's orbit.
The geology of solar terrestrial planets mainly deals with the geological aspects of the four terrestrial planets of the Solar System – Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars – and one terrestrial dwarf planet: Ceres. Earth is the only terrestrial planet known to have an active hydrosphere.
The Discovery quadrangle lies within the heavily cratered part of Mercury in a region roughly antipodal to the 1550-km-wide Caloris Basin. Like the rest of the heavily cratered part of the planet, the quadrangle contains a spectrum of craters and basins ranging in size from those at the limit of resolution of the best photographs to those as much as 350 km across, and ranging in degree of freshness from pristine to severely degraded. Interspersed with the craters and basins both in space and time are plains deposits that are probably of several different origins. Because of its small size and very early segregation into core and crust, Mercury has seemingly been a dead planet for a long time—possibly longer than the Moon. Its geologic history, therefore, records with considerable clarity some of the earliest and most violent events that took place in the inner Solar System.
Gertrude is the largest known crater on Uranus's moon Titania. A peak-ring impact basin, it is roughly 326–400 kilometers across, 1/5 to 1/4 of Titania's diameter. Gertrude was first observed by the Voyager 2 spacecraft on its January 1986 flyby of the Uranian system. It is named after Gertrude, the mother of Prince Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. The name Gertrude was officially adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1988. Features on Titania are named after female Shakespearean characters.
Trouvelot is a crater on Mars, located in the Oxia Palus quadrangle at 16.2° north latitude and 13.1° west longitude near the crustal dichotomy in the circum-Chryse region. It is roughly located along the dichotomy between Arabia Terra to the northeast and the southernmost of the circum-Chryse outflow channels to the southwest. Trouvelot crater measures approximately 148.77 kilometres (92.44 mi) in diameter and was named after Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, a French astronomer (1827–1895). The name was adopted by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature in 1973.
Puńsk is an impact crater on Mars, located in the Oxia Palus quadrangle at 20.8° N and 41.2° W. It measures 11.6 kilometers in diameter and was named after the village of Puńsk in Poland.
Zumba is a very young crater on Mars, located in the Phoenicis Lacus quadrangle at 28.68 South and 133.18 West. It measures approximately 2.93 kilometres (1.82 mi) in diameter and was named after the town of Zumba in Ecuador. The name was adopted by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature in 2006.
Complex craters are a type of large impact crater morphology. Complex craters are classified into two groups: central-peak craters and peak-ring craters. Peak-ring craters have diameters that are larger in than central-peak craters and have a ring of raised massifs which are roughly half the rim-to-rim diameter, instead of a central peak.
Occator is an impact crater located on Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, that contains "Spot 5", the brightest of the bright spots observed by the Dawn spacecraft. It was known as "Region A" in ground-based images taken by the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea.
Kerwan is the largest confirmed crater and one of the largest geological features on Ceres. It was discovered on February 19, 2015 from Dawn images as it approached Ceres. The crater is distinctly shallow for its size, and lacks a central peak. A central peak might have been destroyed by a 15-kilometer-wide crater at the center of Kerwan. The crater is likely to be young relative to the rest of Ceres's surface, as Kerwan has largely obliterated the cratering in the southern part of Vendimia Planitia.
Yalode is the second-largest confirmed crater on Ceres, after Kerwan. It is adjacent to another large crater, Urvara and serves as the namesake for the Yalode Quadrange. Yalode named after the Dahomeyan (Fon) deity of the yam harvest, Yalodé; the name Yalode was officially approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on 3 July 2015.
Haulani is an impact crater located on Ceres that contains "Spot 1", one of the bright spots observed by the Dawn spacecraft. The crater was named after Haulani, the Hawaiian goddess of plants. In July 2018, NASA released a comparison of physical features, including Haulani crater, found on Ceres with similar ones present on Earth.
Coniraya is a large, shallow impact crater on the dwarf planet Ceres. It is the namesake for the Coniraya Quadrangle.
Dantu is a large crater on Ceres, located within the Vendimia Planitia. It is rimmed by a number of minor faculae, which together form Bright Spot 2.
Fejokoo is a hexagonal impact crater on the dwarf planet Ceres. Like all craters on Ceres, it is named after an agricultural deity; the crater is named for the Igbo deity who provided yams. The name was officially approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on 3 July 2015, shortly after Dawn had entered Ceres orbit. Fejokoo Crater is the namesake for the Fejokoo Quadrangle.
The geology of Ceres is the scientific study of the surface, crust, and interior of the dwarf planet Ceres. It seeks to understand and describe Ceres' composition, landforms, evolution, and physical properties and processes. The study draws on fields such as geophysics, remote sensing, geochemistry, geodesy, and cartography.
Achita is a large impact crater on the dwarf planet Ceres. The crater is named after Achita, a Nigerian god of agriculture. The crater was imaged as part of NASA's Dawn mission. The probe showed that Achita has mass-wasting ridges on the floor and is the fourth oldest crater on Ceres having been formed 570 million years ago.
Sintana is a large central peak crater in the Southern Hemisphere of the dwarf planet Ceres, located at 44.21° S, 76.4 ° E. It has a diameter of 58 km, hosting a central peak. The crater is named after the deity of the Kogi people of northern Colombia who produced fertile black earth. The name Sintana was officially adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on 3 July 2015. It is the namesake of the Sintana Quadrangle.
Dorothy is the largest known impact basin on Pluto's moon Charon. The crater was discovered by the New Horizons space probe in 2015 during its flyby of Pluto and its moons. It was named after Dorothy Gale from the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The crater is located near Charon's north pole, and overlaps the edge of Mordor Macula.
