2000 Jan 17
NEAR Snaps New Approach Photos of Eros
The photo album of "NEAR's trip to Eros" has a new page: the first image from the spacecraft's approach to the asteroid. Taken Jan. 12 with NEAR's Multispectral Imager, the picture was posted today on the NEAR Web site. More photos will follow in the weeks leading up to NEAR's Feb. 14 rendezvous with Eros.Snapped from 27,200 miles (45,350 kilometers) away, Eros appears only as a white speck on the black background of deep space. However, mission navigators use these early images to confirm the asteroid's location and keep the spacecraft on the right course. The NEAR team also uses them to measure variations in the light reflected off Eros, a key to determining the asteroid's exact rotation.
NEAR is now about 22,500 miles (or 35,300 kilometers) from its target - closer than the distance at which most weather and communications satellites orbit the Earth.
