Caption: Images of 433 Eros from the NEAR spacecraft (1996--2001), 2000 Feb12.

Features:

1. Eros is approximately 33x13x13 km and we are viewing it from about 1800 km away.

2. The sequence of images covers 5.5 hours and shows Eros in approximately true color.

3. The NEAR spacecraft (1996--2001) went into orbit around Eros and landed on it as the final act of its mission.

4. You can see that the surface is cratered, but smoothish. It has probably been pulverized to regolith: slippery, glassy dust with pebbles and rocks of various sizes????.

5. Eros, discovered in 1898, is a NEA (near-Earth asteroid).

   It's semi-major axis is 1.458 AU and it has eccentricity 0.223 (Cox-319).

6. Because Eros is named for a love god, many of the features on Eros have all been named for famous/infamous lovers: Orpheus & Eurydice (before 1200 BCE in legend), Genji (Tale of Genji, before 1021), Don Quixote & Dulcinea (Don Quixote, 1605, 1615), Don Juan (from 1630 onward), Casanova (1725--1798), Catherine & Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights, 1847), and Lolita (Lolita, 1955). For the locations of features with these names, see Views of the Solar System: Cylindrical Projection Map of Eros by Grant L. Hutchison.