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.