NEAR image of the day for 2000 May 11

Over the past several months, NEAR Shoemaker has returned images that show a real asteroid is much more complicated and diverse than the jagged Hollywood stereotype. This image of the inside of Eros' saddle - taken May 9, 2000, from an orbital altitude of 49 kilometers (30 miles) - vividly demonstrates that an asteroid is a real (albeit small) world with more geologic character to its surface than just an endless collection of craters. The landscape is dotted with boulders having sizes as small as the resolution of the images (8 meters, or 26 feet). Brightness markings 20 to 400 meters (65 to 1300 feet) across give the surface a mottled appearance. The whole scene is about 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) across.

(Image 0133252700)

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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, APL