Stereo Eros
Explanation:
Get out your
red/blue
glasses and float next to asteroid
433
Eros, 170 million kilometers away!
Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 earth-years,
asteroid
Eros is a diminutive 40 x 14 x 14 kilometer
world of undulating horizons,
craters, boulders and valleys.
Its unsettling scale and bizarre shape are emphasized in
this
picture - a mosaic of images from
the
NEAR
Shoemaker spacecraft
processed to yield a
stereo anaglyphic view.
Along with
dramatic
chiaroscuro,
NEAR's 3-D imaging
provided important measurements of the asteroid's landforms
and structures, and
clues
to the origin of this city-sized chunk of
solar system.
The smallest features visible here are about 30 meters across.
After spending a year in orbit around Eros,
the historic Near Shoemaker spacecraft made the first ever
landing
on an asteroid's surface
February 12, 2001.
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.
