Eros Horizon View
Since April 30,
the robotic NEAR-Shoemaker
spacecraft
has been orbiting only 31 miles from
asteroid Eros.
Cruising over the
asteroid's north
and south poles at a leisurely 7 miles
per hour, the spacecraft completes
an
orbit once every 1.2 earth days.
This dramatic horizon view recorded by the spacecraft's camera
on May 18 spans about 0.8 miles and reveals features as
small as 13 feet across.
Emphasized by long, harsh shadows produced
by the low sun angle, the rolling
surface of Eros is seen to be strewn with boulders and craters with a range
of sizes.
The jagged-looking boulder near the picture center is over 190 feet tall.
While gathering sharp pictures of Eros' surface,
experimenters will also
take advantage of
the
close orbit
to explore the asteroid's surface composition and
internal structure, and search for a magnetic field.