The Many Faces of Eros

This montage shows structural features on Eros obtained by NEAR Shoemaker from several different orbits. Any underlying, deep-seated structures probably formed as a result of large impacts to the asteroid's surface, in the same way that a car windshield fractures when it is hit by a stone. Later, movement of regolith may have modified the structure's surface expressions.

Troughs -- Shallow troughs (top left) are found within the saddle region of Eros and are very closely aligned. A large flat-floored trough (bottom left) is found in the saddle.

Pits -- The top right image shows a chain of pits, most likely the result of loose regolith (impact-derived soil) draining into a crack on the asteroid's surface.

Ridges -- At center, right is the ridge that winds from Eros' saddle area around the north pole down to the 5.3-km crater.

Fractures -- The center image shows the region where the ridge ends. The ridge comes up from the bottom of the image and, near the center, appears to turn into a set of small fractures.

Grooves -- The bottom, right image shows grooves on a relatively smooth area of Eros' western hemisphere. These are evenly spaced and some look like they have raised rims.

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.