Get out you red/blueglasses and float next to asteroi 433Eros, 170 million kilometers away!Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 earth-years asteroidEros is a diminutive 40 x 14 x 14 kilometerworld of undulating horizons craters, boulders and valleys.Its unsettling scale and bizarre shape are emphasized i thispicture - a mosaic of images from the NEARShoemaker spacecraftprocessed to yield stereo anaglyphic view. Along wit dramatic chiaroscuro,NEAR's 3-D imagingprovided important measurements of the asteroid's landformsand structures, an cluesto the origin of this city-sized chunk o 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 everlanding on an asteroid's surfaceFebruary 12, 2001.
No comments:
Post a Comment