Spacecraft zooms in on potato-shaped asteroid

In the first hours after NEAR's insertion into Eros orbit, the spacecraft's camera took these images from a range of 210 miles (330 km) above the surface

February 16, 2000
Web posted at: 10:01 AM EST (1501 GMT)

LAUREL, Maryland (CNN) -- NASA released more closeups of the potato-shaped space rock called Eros on Tuesday, one day after it became the first asteroid ever orbited by a manmade satellite.

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous craft obtained a series of images from 210 miles (330 kilometers) above the surface, hours after it began orbiting the Manhattan-sized asteroid.

Mission controllers are relying on visible features such as craters to plot the robot ship's path around Eros. They can calculate NEAR's position using images of the features from different angles.

After a four-year journey to Eros, the NEAR craft on Monday started a yearlong close-up study of the asteroid, which orbits the sun from a distance of 160 million miles.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Star Gazing

Although Eros itself poses no threat to Earth, scientists hope the $224 million mission will determine the asteroid's origin and offer clues about how to protect Earth from catastrophic collisions with other large space rocks.

Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, NEAR was the first spacecraft launched in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Spacecraft begins Valentine's Day tryst with asteroid
February 14, 2000
Spacecraft snaps pictures of asteroid ahead of historic orbit
February 9, 2000
Rock hunter finds second Mars meteorite known in U.S.
February 4, 2000
NEAR craft changes course for upcoming asteroid rendezvous
February 3, 2000
Scientists reduce odds of Earth-asteroid collision
July 28, 1999
Spacecraft set for risky asteroid flyby
July 28, 1999
Nanorover bound for asteroid
June 28, 1999

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Mission
NASA Homepage
Asteroid Comet Impact Hazards
The Spacewatch Project
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Impact of an Asteroid off the New York Coast

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.