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An Ancient Ridge

Feb. 17, 2001
This image of asteroid Eros, taken by NASA's NEAR Shoemaker on Sept.21, 2000, shows a ridge that trends from upper left to lower right is among the older features on Eros, as evidenced by the large number of superimposed impact craters.

This mosaic of four images -- taken by NEAR Shoemaker on September 21, 2000, from about 100 kilometers (62 miles) above Eros -- covers part of the asteroid's southern hemisphere, southwest of the large, 5.3-kilometer (3.3-mile) diameter crater. The ridge that trends from upper left to lower right is among the older features on Eros, as evidenced by the large number of superimposed impact craters. The whole scene is approximately 11 kilometers (7 miles) from top to bottom.

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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