Species 5618

Two days after NEAR Shoemaker began its orbit of Eros, the spacecraft captured this rotation movie as it moved closer to the asteroid. Although a number of movies have appeared on the NEAR Web site showing all manners of fascinating surface features, this was the last taken at a great enough distance to capture the full illuminated part of the asteroid in each frame. The movie shows a full rotation on February 16, 2000, as viewed from a range of about 340 kilometers (211 miles). It nicely captures the relationship of the two major landforms, the saddle and the 5.3-kilometer (3.3-mile) diameter crater, to the rest of Eros.