NEAR image of the day for 2000 Sep 08
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Eros Flyover Movie: Closest Yet!
Small: Animated GIF (548KB) QuickTime (3.8MB) MPEG (465KB) Large: Animated GIF (4.8MB) QuickTime (4.6MB) MPEG (1.3MB) On April 26, 2000, during the first days of low altitude orbits around Eros, NEAR Shoemaker's camera took this flyover movie from an orbital altitude of only 51 kilometers (32 miles). The field of view starts near the end of the asteroid and then pans across the surface near the terminator, the line dividing the asteroid's day and night sides, where the oblique lighting brings out crisp details of surface landforms. The camera then scans along the horizon, revealing a spectacular, bouldery skyline. The movie ends with a view of the interior of the large, 5.3-kilometer (3.3-mile) diameter crater nicknamed "the paw." Two of the small craters forming the paw's "toes" are in the foreground, and the main crater with its bright, streaked walls sits in the background.
(Images 0132140527-0132142822)
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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.
