433 Eros, Orbiting An Asteroid Up Close

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) satellite photographs here and below of an asteroid called 433 Eros. NEAR moved into orbit around the 25 mile long asteroid on February 14, 2000 and took the first images from a range of 210 miles (330 km) above the asteroid's surface. Eros is about a hundred million miles from Earth in the asteroid belt between Earth and Mars. Photographs courtesy NASA and Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

February 16, 2000 Baltimore, Maryland - It looks a bit like a 25 mile long, five mile wide potato. In one photo, it even resembles a Dutch shoe. Called 433 Eros, it's made out of iron and magnesium-bearing silicates and is now the focus of a NASA satellite called NEAR, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous. NEAR moved into orbit around Eros on February 14 and will stay there for the next year. Eros is one of the biggest asteroids in our Solar System circling between the earth and Mars. It's almost twice the size of Manhattan, measuring about 25 miles long and nearly five miles wide.

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