Radiation Storm Occurs, Magentic Storm Predicted 14 July 2000

Second Eros Rotation Movie:
MPEG (3.6 MB) ||
QuickTime (3.3 MB)

On Jan 22 the multispectral imager on the NEAR spacecraft acquired the
second in a series of rotation movies that will be taken during NEAR’s
approach to the asteroid 433 Eros. When these images were acquired, NEAR
was approximately 17,800 miles (28,600 km) from the asteroid so Eros
still appeared very small. The movie was created from 720 images,
one every 1/2° of Eros’s rotation for one rotation or Eros “day.”
The time index at the bottom indicates when each frame was acquired in
Greenwich Mean Time.

Even at this resolution of 1.7 miles (2.7 km) per pixel, the highly
irregular shape of Eros is apparent. Over the next 3 weeks Eros will
appear larger and larger until the spacecraft goes into orbit on
Valentine’s Day (February 14th).
Several more movies at progressively higher resolutions will be acquired
over the next month.