Asteroid 253 Mathilde's Large Craters
Explanation:
You're zipping through the Solar System when you pass ...
asteroid 253 Mathilde. This actually happened to NASA's
NEAR spacecraft just last Friday. The
above picture of the previously unresolved
asteroid was
released just yesterday. Mathilde's large craters and
irregular shape indicates that it has undergone huge collisions
with other large space rocks in the past.
Mathilde has more large craters than asteroids
243 Ida and
951 Gaspra,
which were photographed by the
Galileo spacecraft now orbiting
Jupiter.
In the image center is a crater over 20 kilometers across.
Asteroids
are rare enough so that spacecraft traveling through even the
main
asteroid belt need not fear colliding with any - let alone
one as large as
Mathilde.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
