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OrbitStudio / Vesta landmarks / Divalia Fossae

Divalia Fossae

A band of huge troughs along Vesta's equator, larger than the Grand Canyon, probably cracked open by the impact that made Rheasilvia. They print as long parallel grooves.

SizeThe band about 549 km long; Divalia Fossa, the largest trough, 465 km long, 22 km wide and 5 km deep
Coordinates9.05° S, 163.77° W (the band's center); the entries: 9.0° S, 160.0° E and 9.0° S, 140.0° W
TypeTroughs (fossae)
Named afterthe Divalia, a Roman festival held on December 21 in honor of the goddess Angerona; adopted by the IAU in 2011
Elevation sourceDawn shape model (JPL), 50 m grid

Coordinates, length and name from the IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature; Divalia Fossa's size from NASA JPL; the troughs from NASA's Dawn image release; their link to Rheasilvia from Williams et al. 2014. Coordinates are the center point OrbitStudio uses for this destination.

Where are Divalia Fossae on Vesta?

Along the equator, a little south of it. The gazetteer puts the band's center at 9.05° south, 196.23° east, which OrbitStudio counts as 163.77° west, and gives it a length of about 549 kilometers. It runs across the 180° line, so the generator has two entries: one west of the line, centered at 9° S, 160° E, and one east of it, centered at 9° S, 140° W. The IAU named the troughs in 2011 after the Divalia, a Roman festival held on December 21.

How did the troughs form?

Most likely in the impact that made Rheasilvia. The largest, Divalia Fossa, is 465 kilometers long, 22 kilometers wide and 5 kilometers deep, larger than the Grand Canyon. NASA ties the troughs to the giant impacts in Vesta's southern hemisphere, whose shock spread through the whole body, and the Dawn team's structural analysis links Divalia Fossae to Rheasilvia, and a second, older set of troughs in the north, Saturnalia Fossae, to Veneneia. JPL found that the troughs are blocks of crust that dropped along faults, a kind of structure that needs a layered interior: in JPL's words, a sign of a stunted planet.

What do Divalia Fossae look like as a 3D print?

Long parallel grooves. The western entry frames about 140 kilometers of the band, and on a model 200 millimeters across the relief in that view comes out at about 26 millimeters at true scale; the eastern entry frames about 220 kilometers. A rectangle along the troughs shows them best.

What is OrbitStudio?

OrbitStudio turns real elevation data into 3D-printable models. You pick a region of Vesta on a globe or a flat map, choose a jigsaw puzzle or a solid ornament, and get ready-to-print files with terrain and borders already separated and colored. No CAD, no mesh repair. The heights come from the shape model NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory made from Dawn's images, on a 50-meter grid.

Trying it is free and needs no account: pick a region, generate it and turn it around in 3D. Downloading the model — STL files and pre-colored 3MF files for Bambu Studio or OrcaSlicer — takes a Plus or Merchant plan, or one credit from a pass. The generator covers the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Ceres, Pluto and Charon too.

Other landmarks

The night sky, too

OrbitStudio Sky, the night-sky tool, turns the sky over any place, on any date from 1900 to 2100, into a 3D-printable star map. Its STL is free.