NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Close To Eros

Scroll right and fly close over asteroid [ http://www.edunet.i…] Eros! This long mosaic [ http://near.jhuapl.…] was constructed of images returned yesterday by the NEAR [ http://near.jhuapl.…] Shoemaker spacecraft as it orbited to within 6.4 kilometers of a spot in the southern hemisphere of the rotating asteroid's surface. That distance (about 21,000 feet) is less than the cruising altitude of most commercial airline flights. The digital images show that while many regions appear smooth with craters filled in by an accumulation of loose regolith [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], much of Eros' surface is littered with rocks and boulders. The large boulder [ http://near.jhuapl.…] glinting in the sunlight at the far left, just above the center of the mosaic, spans approximately 25 meters. In the high-resolution view, the smallest rocks [ http://near.jhuapl.…] visible are roughly human-sized at about 1.4 meters (5 feet) across. The car-sized [ http://near.jhuapl.…] Near Shoemaker spacecraft is now on its way [ http://near.jhuapl.…] to a higher, more stable orbit about 200 kilometers above asteroid Eros [ http://near.jhuapl.…].

NEAR Project [ http://near.jhuapl.…], JHU APL [ http://sd-www.jhuap…], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]

eros

asteroid

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

NEAR Shoemaker

Eros

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap001027