Astronomy Picture of the Day 3-01-03

NASA ^ | 3-01-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 March 1

Stereo Eros
Credit: NEAR Project, JHU APL, NASA

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid 433 Eros, 170 million kilometers away! Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 earth-years, asteroid Eros is a diminutive 40 x 14 x 14 kilometer world of undulating horizons, craters, boulders and valleys. Its unsettling scale and bizarre shape are emphasized in this picture - a mosaic of images from the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft processed to yield a stereo anaglyphic view. Along with dramatic chiaroscuro, NEAR's 3-D imaging provided important measurements of the asteroid's landforms and structures, and clues to the origin of this city-sized chunk of solar system. The smallest features visible here are about 30 meters across. After spending a year in orbit around Eros, the historic Near Shoemaker spacecraft made the first ever landing on an asteroid's surface February 12, 2001.

[petuniasevan]

The Internet is a wonderful thing. The NEAR Shoemaker images from asteroid 433 Eros are available to all at this site: Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous image archive

I don't have red/blue glasses, and you probably don't either. So I went through those NEAR image archives until I found ONE of the stereo pair. Here it is!

[petuniasevan]

[headsonpikes]

Beyond cool. ;^)

[xJones]

After spending a year in orbit around Eros, the historic Near Shoemaker spacecraft made the first ever landing on an asteroid's surface February 12, 2001.

Unbelievable.

King, just thought I'd ping you because petunia puts up some great astronomy photos early every morning.

[MozartLover]

bump

[MeekOneGOP]

Thank ya thank ya ! bumpity bumpity ...

[RightWhale]

I don't know why NASA insists on these red-green stereo images. They have been publishing them for years, and no one has the red-green glasses.

If NASA were sincerely interested in outreach in the area of 3-D imaging, they would make sure the red-green glasses were made available everywhere all the time. They could place a pair of red-green glasses in every envelope sent to the taxpayers by the IRS. Would it cause heartburn among the bean counters that run NASA these days?

[sistergoldenhair]

Interesting. Thanks.

[foolish-one]

Thank you.