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Closing in on Eros

Feb. 17, 2001
These images of asteroid Eros, taken by NASA's NEAR Shoemaker Jan. 25-28, 2001, show Eros' bouldery surface at increasing resolution.

These four images are among thousands NEAR Shoemaker acquired during several low-altitude passes over Eros from January 25-28, 2001. From upper left to lower right, the images show Eros' bouldery surface at increasing resolution. The image at upper left was taken January 27 of a point 13.5 kilometers (8.4 miles) away; the one at the upper right was taken January 26 from 11.1 kilometers (6.9 miles) away. Each top scene is about 550 meters (1,815 feet) across. The image at bottom left was taken January 26 from 4.9 kilometers (3 miles) away, and the bottom right image was taken January 28 from a similar distance. Each lower scene is about 230 meters (760 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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