NEAR image of the day for 2000 Jul 21
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Snow Job How are Eros' craters like a full moon? A full moon, although bright, is about four times darker than snow. Similarly, the bright materials in Eros' craters might resemble snowbanks, but we know that isn't the case. Eros' surface gets quite warm during the daytime - hotter than the Sahara Desert in some places. This long, slow bake in the vacuum of space removes any traces of water from the asteroid's surface - and any likelihood of snow.
Looks can be deceiving, so scientists look at the data they receive from NEAR Shoemaker's instruments to come to the facts. This image of Eros' bright crater materials was taken July 11, 2000, from an orbital altitude of 42 kilometers (26 miles). The whole scene is about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) across.
(Image 0138768004)
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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.