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Eros Global Rotation

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On March 22, 2000, while in orbit 124 miles (200 kilometers) from Eros, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft captured this rotation movie of the asteroid's northern hemisphere. The movie features three of Eros' major morphologic features under dynamically changing lighting conditions.
The "saddle" region appears first; then from the shadows emerges a prominent ridge that extends across one-third of the asteroid's circumference. After a pass over the large, 3-mile (5-kilometer) impact crater that dominates the opposite side of the tumbling space rock, the sequence concludes with a view of the pockmarked landscape under the Eros horizon.

Creating flyover movies from individual images allows geologists to characterize the asteroid's landforms and separate the effects of topography from differences in reflectivity - making these movies valuable scientific tools. The numbers at the bottom of the frame indicate the Universal Time (UT) each image was acquired and the corresponding sub-spacecraft latitude and longitude on Eros.


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Eros Asteroid Movie - revised
This is a compliation of videos put together from photos taken by the NEAR-Shoemaker probe. The Music is "Painted Desert" from the Grand Canyon Suite by Grofe'. The final animation depicts the landing of NEAR-Shoemaker on the surface of Eros. Enjoy!


Eros Flyover Movie: Sept. 19, 2000
NEAR Shoemaker captured this rotation movie Sept. 19, 2000, from an orbit 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Eros. The camera moves over a heavily cratered end before panning across Eros' large saddle depression. After a break in taking pictures, the frame shifts to the "terminator" between daylight and darkness. The final sequence offers a panoramic look at the opposite side of Eros before ending over the shadowed edge of the asteroid's largest crater.


NEAR's Descent to Eros
Animation and images of the descent and touchdown of the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft on the asteroid Eros. 12th February 2001. The images were captured by NEAR's multispectral imager (MSI) during descent.
 
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