Feralia Planitia (green and blue, center), an old, degraded crater near Vesta's equator. It is 270 km across and predates Rheasilvia (green at bottom).

Feralia Planitia (/fəˈreɪliə pləˈnɪʃiə/) is the third-largest known impact crater on the asteroid Vesta, after Rheasilvia and Veneneia. It is one of several old, degraded impact basins that predate the Rheasilvia basin that now dominates Vesta. It is situated near the equator, and is 270 kilometres (170 mi) across east to west, though compressed latitudinally by the Rheasilvia impact.[1]

Feralia Planitia (green, top) is large enough to be visible from Earth, here as seen in an model of Vesta constructed from Hubble Space Telescope images taken in May 1996. The much larger crater at bottom is Veneneia plus Rheasilvia

References

  1. ↑ Garry et al. (2012), "Geologic Mapping of Av-10 Oppia Quadrangle of Asteroid 4 Vesta", Geophysical Research Abstracts, vol. 14, EGU2012-5711-1
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