Asteroid 433 Eros as imaged by NEAR. Photo: JHU/APL

This image of the interior of Eros' saddle area, taken at a range of 204 km (127 miles), displays a paucity of craters compared to the surface on the right hand side of the image.

The saddle displays many interesting structural features. Visible on the left wall are a series of closely spaced grooves that follow the terrain downslope. Opposite, on the upper right wall, trending towards the back of the saddle is a prominent ridge. Boulders are visible throughout this image. Features as small as 20 meters (65 feet) are discernable in this image.

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.