Astronomy Picture of the Day

Stereo Eros


Bild Note: 0 (0 Votes)

⏴ previousBild Upload von 18.02.2016 21:43next ⏵
zorg.ch
#98908 by @ 18.02.2007 00:00 - nach oben -
Stereo Eros


Explanation:

Get out your
red/blue
glasses
and float next to asteroid
433
Eros
, now over 220 million kilometers away!

Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 earth-years,

asteroid
Eros is
a diminutive 40 x 14 x 14 kilometer
world of undulating horizons,
craters, boulders and valleys.

Its unsettling scale and bizarre shape are emphasized in
this
picture
- a mosaic of images from the
NEAR Shoemaker
spacecraft processed to yield a
stereo anaglyphic
view.

Along with
dramatic

chiaroscuro,
NEAR's 3-D imaging provided important measurements
of the asteroid's landforms and structures, and
clues to the origin of this city-sized chunk of
solar system.

The smallest features visible here are about 30 meters across.

After spending a year in orbit around Eros,
the historic Near Shoemaker spacecraft made the first ever
landing on an asteroid's surface
February 12, 2001.




Credit & Copyright