PIA02923: Mosaic of Eros' Northern Hemisphere
 Target Name:  Eros
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  NEAR Shoemaker 
 Spacecraft:  NEAR Shoemaker
 Instrument:  Multi-Spectral Imager 
 Product Size:  760 x 838 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Johns Hopkins University/APL
 Addition Date:  2000-06-10
 Primary Data Set:  NEAR Home Page
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA02923.tif (354 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA02923.jpg (47.22 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

While NEAR Shoemaker orbits Eros, the asteroid appears too large for the camera's field of view. In order to get a complete view of the surface from a particular vantage point, several images are mosaiced. To do this, the digital images returned by the spacecraft are draped over a computer model of the asteroid's shape.

This spectacular view -- looking down on the north polar region -- was constructed from six images taken February 29, 2000, from an orbital altitude of about 200 kilometers (124 miles). This vantage point highlights the major physiographic features of the northern hemisphere: the saddle seen at the bottom; the 5.3-kilometer (3.3-mile) diameter crater at the top; and a major ridge system running between the two features that spans at least one-third of the asteroid's circumference.

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.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/JHUAPL

Image Addition Date:
2000-06-10