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A Lacework Surface

Aug. 5, 2000
This image of asteroid Eros, taken by NASA's NEAR Shoemaker on July 19, 2000, shows steep local slopes, difficult to see without shadows, but the lacework of bright and dark regolith is at its most conspicuous.

With the Sun high in Eros' sky, shadows disappear and bright surface features stand out. In this picture taken by NEAR Shoemaker on July 19, 2000, from an orbital altitude of 36 kilometers (22 miles), the Sun is nearly overhead. The steep local slopes are hard to see without shadows, but the lacework of bright and dark regolith is at its most conspicuous. The image shows a region about 800 meters (2,600 feet) across. The smallest visible rocks are about 6 meters (19 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.

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