Facts about Eros
- 10
On February 12, 2001, NEAR Shoemaker became the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid when it touched down on Eros at a velocity of just 1.6 meters per second.
- 09
Eros's surface contains boulders ranging up to 100 meters in diameter, accumulated from impacts and gravitational interactions with other celestial bodies over billions of years.
- 08
Radar observations in 1975 determined that Eros has an irregular, elongated potato-like shape rather than a spherical form.
- 07
Spectroscopic analysis reveals that Eros's composition includes silicate minerals and nickel-iron metal, classifying it as an S-type or stony asteroid.
- 06
Eros's heavily cratered surface displays a large saddle-shaped depression called Himeros that measures approximately 5 kilometers across.
- 05
Scientists estimated Eros's mass at approximately 6.6 trillion kilograms by analyzing the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft's orbital dynamics around the asteroid.
- 04
Eros passes within 22.5 million kilometers of Earth at its closest approach, making it one of the nearest asteroids to our planet.
- 03
In 1975, Eros became the first near-Earth asteroid discovered when German astronomer Gustav Witt identified it photographically at the Berlin Observatory.
- 02
Approximately 6.8 kilometers long, asteroid Eros rotates once every 5.27 hours and orbits the Sun every 1.76 years.
- 01
The asteroid Eros was visited by NASA's NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft, which orbited it from 2000 to 2001 and landed on its surface.