PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA03128: The Home Stretch Begins
This image of asteroid Eros, taken by NASA's NEAR Shoemaker on Dec. 15, 2000, shows a small cratered region only about 1.1 kilometers (0.7 miles) across.
 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