Explanation:
Orbiting the
Sun between
Mars and
Earth, asteroid 433 Eros was visited by the
robot spacecraft NEAR-Shoemaker in 2000 February.
High-resolution surface
images
and measurements made by NEAR's Laser Rangefinder
(NLR)
have been
combined into the
above visualization based on the derived
3D model of the
tumbling space rock.
NEAR allowed scientists to discover that
Eros is a single solid body,
that its composition is nearly uniform,
and that it formed during the early years of our
Solar System.
Mysteries remain, however, including why some
rocks on the surface have disintegrated.
On 2001 February 12, the NEAR mission drew to a
dramatic close as it was
crash landed onto the
asteroid's surface,
surviving well enough to return an
analysis of the
composition of the surface
regolith.
In December of 2002, NASA made an unsuccessful
attempt
to communicate with the spacecraft after it spent 22 months
resting on the asteroid's surface.
NEAR will likely remain on the
asteroid
for billions of years as a monument to
human ingenuity at the turn of the
third millennium.
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