The last images on the way to Eros
Event image. NEAR Shoemaker’s 12 February 2001 descent photograph from a range of 700 metres. The view spans 33 metres; the large oblong rock casting a prominent shadow is about 7.4 metres across. Compare the changing scale with the earlier and later samples. Shadows and perspective do not by themselves measure rock composition.
NASA factual/editorial media guidelines · credited mission imagery, resized to WebP; no endorsement implied
· Original image source · Image licenceAn asteroid surface changes from landscape to individual stones.
- World
- Asteroids
- Case date or period
- Orbit & landing · January–February 2001
Look closer
NEAR Shoemaker’s close approach and descent brought Eros into dramatically increasing detail. The final image is incomplete because transmission ended during the spacecraft’s arrival at the surface.
Follow the evidence
Browse the broader slopes before opening the final frame. The blank or unfinished portion belongs to the observation’s transmission history, rather than a physical edge on the asteroid.
A flat pond is not a pool of liquid
James Roberts and colleagues used topographic models to test the flatness of smooth Eros deposits called ponds. Some floors are not level, complicating a simple settling explanation. Fine-grain production and delivery must be distinguished from the process that flattens or concentrates the material: electrostatic transport remains plausible, while impact-generated shaking could help move sediment into depressions. These proposals concern dry regolith in weak gravity. The descent images resolve rocks and texture, but do not directly measure charging or demonstrate which transport mechanism created a particular deposit.
Follow four actual descent samples to the last signal
Step through the photographs taken from 1,150, 700, 250 and 120 metres above Eros. Their scenes narrow from 54 to 33, 12 and six metres across. Rocks replace the earlier landscape as scale changes; these selected photographs are not a continuous movie. Compare shadows without assuming each sample covers identical ground. The unfinished last frame records camera-signal loss during touchdown, while the spacecraft itself survived and continued communicating. The January montage belongs to earlier orbital passes.
Sources & further reading
- Closing in on Eros — NASA Image and Video Library / JPL
- Final Eros Images: Last, Closest Image of Eros — NASA Image and Video Library / JPL
- On Eros Slopes — NASA Image and Video Library / JPL
- Origin and flatness of ponds on asteroid 433 Eros — Roberts and colleagues — Original investigator research paper
- Eros descent · 1,150 metres — NASA Photojournal / credited mission imaging team
- Eros descent · 700 metres — NASA Photojournal / credited mission imaging team
- Eros descent · 250 metres — NASA Photojournal / credited mission imaging team
- NEAR’s historic landing and continuing communications — JPL / original mission navigation account