Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
Flying Over Asteroid Eros' West End
Explanation:
The robot spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker continues to orbit asteroid Eros. This condensed 40-minute long time-lapse sequence [ http://near.jhuapl.…] taken last month shows what it looks like to pass within 200 kilometers of Eros [ http://near.jhuapl.…]' west end. The north pole of the rotating mountain [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] is toward the bottom of the picture. This month NEAR-Shoemaker closes [ http://near.jhuapl.…] to within 100 kilometers, and by the end of this month will orbit only 50 kilometers from the center of this 33-kilometer long asteroid [ http://www.seds.org…]. One reason for moving in so close is to determine if 433 Eros has a magnetic field [ http://near.jhuapl.…]. NEAR Shoemaker, launched in 1996, is run [ http://near.jhuapl.…] by a computer similar to a PC released 15 years ago (12 MHz, 256K).
Credit and Copyright:
NEAR Project [ http://near.jhuapl.…], JHU APL [ http://sd-www.jhuap…], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]
keyword:
asteroid
keyword:
Eros
keyword:
movie
facet_when:
1996
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_what:
NEAR Shoemaker
facet_what:
asteroid
facet_what:
Eros
facet_when_year:
1996
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap000417

Flying Over Asteroid Eros' West End
Add To Workspace Export