Spaceflight Now: Breaking News

NASA's NEAR Shoemaker sees asteroid Eros at sunset
JHU/APL PHOTO RELEASE
Posted: April 2, 2000

  Eros
Asteroid Eros. Photo: JHU/APL
 
Eros' irregular shape gives rise to some stunning vistas at the time of sunrise or sunset.

On March 6, 2000, the imager on the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft caught this view of a stunning sunset. In the pitch black foreground the Sun has already set, but just over the horizon another part of the asteroid remains lit.

Eros' rotation period is just 5 hours, 16 minutes, so in the course one 24-hour Earth day an observer on Eros would be treated to four full cycles of sunrises and sunsets.

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

Other coverage
Eros the movie -- NEAR Shoemaker's first of several planned "flyover movies" of Eros.

Flashy sun -- Solar flares light Eros' surface.

NEAR Shoemaker -- NASA has renamed the probe in honor of Gene Shoemaker.


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