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1. Near
   Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are meteoroids, asteroids, and comets whose orbits lie close to -- and sometimes cross -- Earth’s. Impact craters on Earth bear witness to the destructive potential of NEOs. The hazard posed by NEOs has captured the professional attention of not just astronomers but ... geologists, biologists, mission planners, aerospace engineers, and even the United States Department of Defense. The public is increasingly aware that Earth resides within a cosmic shooting gallery. The crash of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter in 1994 provided proof that cosmic collisions do occur.
2. 433 Eros -- Near-Earth Asteroid 433 Eros
   Explanation: Gleaming in the rays of the setting sun, boulders litter the rugged surface of asteroid 433 Eros. The brightest boulder, at the edge of the large, shadowy crater near this picture's bottom centre, is about 30 metres (100 feet) across. In orbit around Eros since February 2000, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft's camera recorded the dramatic view earlier this month from an altitude of about 50 kilometres. but it wasn't always that way. Eros and other near-Earth asteroids originally orbited in the main asteroid belt, between Jupiter and Mars. Over time, the gravitational influence of Jupiter and other planets perturbed their orbits sending them on trajectories closer to Earth.
3. Eros -- Spacecraft
   This view of the largest crater on Eros -- a mosaic of NEAR Shoemaker images taken Sept. 10, 2000, from an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) - offers a new perspective on the feature known as Psyche. The images were taken as the spacecraft flew directly over the 3.3-mile (5.3 kilometer) wide crater and its smaller sister craters, which align its rim and create a paw-like appearance.
4. 433 Eros -- Images
   Left: The newly renamed NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft captured this oblique view of the large central crater on minor planet 433 Eros. Boulders can be seen in several of the craters. The view has a resolution of about 20 meters (65 feet). Courtesy Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Click on image for larger view.
5. Eros -- Cameras
   This image mosaic was taken in the early hours of October 26, 2000, as NEAR Shoemaker made its low-altitude flyover of Eros. At the time of closest approach, the camera was looking at a region just 6.4 kilometers (4 miles) away. Much of the surface is covered in rocks of all sizes and shapes, set on a gently rounded surface. Other regions are smooth, suggesting accumulation of fine regolith. The smallest rocks seen are about 1.4 meters (5 feet) across.
6. Eros -- Asteroids
   On February 12, two days before NEAR's insertion into orbit around Eros, during a five-hour time span the spacecraft's Multispectral Imager recorded these pictures of the asteroid spinning on its axis. This view, looking down toward the rocky body's north pole, is generally similar to sequences taken on February 6, 10, and 11. But the spacecraft was much closer to Eros (about 1,800 kilometers or a little over 1,100 miles), so the pictures are much sharper.
7. Asteroids -- Spacecraft
   Two of the three types of asteroids are represented by the asteroids that have been explored up close with spacecraft. Mathilde is a dark C-type (brightness enhanced several times to match the other three). Gaspra, Ida, and Eros are S-type asteroids. Mathilde and Eros were visited by NEAR Shoemaker and Gaspra and Ida were visited by Galileo.
8. 433 Eros -- Asteroid
   NASA's NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft landed on the asteroid 433 Eros, 145 million miles from Earth, on 12 February this year. During the final descent 70 high-resolution images of the asteroid's surface were obtained (see movie on http://near.jhuapl.edu/NEAR), revealing the surface in remarkable detail. These images have now been analysed and three papers in this issue report the results. Parts of the asteroid's surface are covered with loose debris, possibly originating from a relatively young 7.6-km-diameter impact crater, and other areas are covered with distinctive smooth dusty surfaces.
9. Eros -- Miscellaneous
   NEAR Shoemaker took this picture of the rim of Eros' "saddle" on November 22, 2000, from a 196-kilometer (122-mile) altitude, with its camera pointed northeast. The southeastern edge of the saddle is shown at the top of the frame. Preexisting landforms on the saddle's rim have been obliterated by resurfacing, as indicated by the low density of superimposed craters. The older, exposed terrain, shown at the bottom of the frame, has a sculpted appearance.
10. Eros (Mythology) -- 433 Eros
    The spacecraft spent the last year in a close-orbit study of asteroid 433 Eros, a near-Earth asteroid that is currently 196 million miles from Earth.. Asteroid Ida and Small Satellite Dactyl -- Wallpaper · Asteroids Wallpaper · Asteroid Wallpaper · Asteroid 433 Eros 127 miles from NASA's NEAR spacecraft. NEAR flew by S-asteroid 433 Eros on December 23, 1998. NEAR began orbiting S-asteroid 433 Eros on February 14, 2000. The NEAR Globominas.com mission ended with a landing. Deep Space Maneuver Retarget NEAR for Asteroid 433 Eros Encounter The trajectory

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