PIA03128: The Home Stretch Begins
 Target Name:  Eros
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  NEAR Shoemaker 
 Spacecraft:  NEAR Shoemaker
 Instrument:  Multi-Spectral Imager 
 Product Size:  492 x 392 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Johns Hopkins University/APL
 Addition Date:  2001-02-17
 Primary Data Set:  NEAR Home Page
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA03128.tif (205.3 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA03128.jpg (30.26 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:

NEAR Shoemaker obtained this image on December 15, 2000, from an altitude of 34 kilometers (21 miles), during the first days of its final low mapping orbit. The science strategy in this orbit focuses on very high-resolution imaging and measuring the elemental composition of the asteroid's surface using the X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers. This picture, for example, covers a region only about 1.1 kilometers (0.7 miles) across, and each pixel projects onto the surface as a spot only about 2 meters (6 feet) across.

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:
2001-02-17