PIA03125: Eros' Battered Surface


Eros’ Battered Surface

Caption:

NEAR Shoemaker captured this image of Eros on November 28, 2000, while taking a color flyover movie from 193 kilometers (120 miles) away. This particular view simultaneously shows several key indicators of the battering Eros' surface has sustained over the eons. Most obvious are the countless craters, some barely big enough for the camera to see. Less obvious are the signs of a layer of fragmental debris, or regolith, blanketing the surface. Among them are the rounded horizon, the boulders visible in the distance, and the bright patches of exposed subsurface material on steep slopes. This scene is approximately 6.6 kilometers (4.1 miles) across.

Background Info:

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.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target 433 Eros
System Near Earth Objects
Target Type Asteroid
Mission NEAR Shoemaker
Instrument Host NEAR Shoemaker
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI)
Detector
Extra Keywords Crater, Grayscale
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2001-02-17
Date in Caption 2000-11-28
Image Credit NASA/JPL/JHUAPL
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03125
Identifier PIA03125