 |
NEAR's First Close-Ups of Eros This montage of images of the asteroid Eros was assembled from images acquired by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft on December 23, 1998, as the spacecraft flew by the asteroid at a distance of 2300 miles (3800 kilometers) at 1:43 PM EST. Shown are nine early views out of 29 that were obtained during the flyby. These images were taken between 10:44 AM and 12:44 PM EST as the spacecraft range closed from 7300 miles (11,100) km to 3300 miles (5300 kilometers). During that time, the asteroid completed nearly half of a rotation. The smallest resolved detail is approximately 1650 feet (500 meters) across.
A firing of the main engine at 5 PM EST December 20, designed to slow the spacecraft for insertion into orbit around the asteroid, was aborted by the spacecraft. Contact with ground controllers was temporarily lost, but was regained at 8 PM EST December 21 when autonomous spacecraft safety protocols took over and transmitted a signal to the ground. All spacecraft systems were determined to be healthy and operational. Within hours, a flyby observation sequence was developed and uploaded to the spacecraft. 1026 images were acquired by the multispectral imager, to determine the size, shape, morphology, rotational state, and color properties of Eros, and to search for small moons. The infrared spectrometer measured spectral properties of the asteroid to determine what minerals are present, and the magnetometer searched for a natural magnetic field. Analysis of the spacecraft radio signal will yield bounds on the asteroid's mass and density.
The main engine was fired successfully on January 3, 1999, placing NEAR on-course for a February 2000 rendezvous. Eros is NEAR's second asteroid encountered. On June 27, 1997, NEAR flew by the main-belt asteroid Mathilde at a range of 1212 kilometers (750 miles).
Previous || Next || Image archive || TIFF image
Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, NEAR was the first spacecraft launched in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. See the NEAR web page at http://near.jhuapl.edu for more details. Feedback to Mike Rogers. michael.rogers@jhuapl.edu.