February 12, 2001
The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us, and yet here you are — a collection of atoms that somehow learned to think, to...
Approaching Asteroid Eros
Birthday · February 12, 2001
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APOD published February 12, 2001. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Today, at about 3 pm EST, the first human-made spacecraft is scheduled to touchdown on an asteroid. At an impact speed of 8 kilometers per hour, it is most probable that the robot spacecraft NEAR-Shoemaker will not survive its planned collision with 433 Eros. A primary reason for the descent, diagrammed above, will be to take images during the four hours on the way down. If all goes well, some of those pictures will show surface features as small as 10 centimeters across. Scientists hope to learn more about this unusual Manhattan-sized rock that is, quite possibly, older than the Earth.