NEAR image of the day for 2000 Sep 27
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Olympic Impacts NEAR Shoemaker caught this provocative view of Eros on August 16, 2000, while orbiting about 51 kilometers (32 miles) above the asteroid. Though the five circular features resemble Olympic rings, they actually are a chance clustering of impact craters. Craters formed so close together are easily visible on the small asteroid because with Eros' weak gravity (about 1/3,000th the average gravity on Earth), debris excavated from an impact travels far and falls back to the surface only at a large distance - if at all! On a larger airless body, like the moon, higher gravity causes a crater's ejecta to impact the surface near the rim, covering and obscuring older landforms.
(Image 0141811301)
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Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, NEAR-Shoemaker was the first spacecraft launched in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. See the NEAR web site for more details. Feedback to Scott Murchie. Scott.Murchie@jhuapl.edu.