February 21, 2000
In the grand ledger of cosmic time, a human life is breathtakingly brief. But brevity is not insignificance.
A Giant Gouge on Asteroid Eros
Birthday · February 21, 2000
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
Free PNG · 1080 × 1350 · No account needed
Image rights and credit requirements apply when sharing or reusing imagery.
Date & occasion only
Change the year
APOD published February 21, 2000. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Asteroid 433 Eros is posing several riddles. NASA's robot spacecraft NEAR began orbiting the 30-kilometer space rock last week, and new pictures are now being beamed back to Earth regularly. As usual in science, when you arrive at a place you've never been before, you see things you don't immediately understand. Scientists are contemplating, for example, the cause of the above-pictured giant gouge in the middle of Eros. Intriguing internal features include groves oriented parallel to the asteroid's length and the relative paucity of craters. These indicate that the gouge formed well after the asteroid itself. One question answered by the shape and density is that, unlike asteroid 253 Mathilde, Eros is not a pile of rocks but one big rock. Astronomers are hopeful that data taken over the coming year might indicate the nature and origin of the baffling bright patches.