Todays pic is a different sort of pic of the day, it is the first one I've done that is 3D, so dig out those 3D specs or make some out of coloured cellophane and enjoy.
Stereo Eros
Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid 433 Eros, 170 million kilometers away! Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 earth-years, asteroid Eros is a diminutive 40 x 14 x 14 kilometer world of undulating horizons, craters, boulders and valleys. Its unsettling scale and bizarre shape are emphasized in this picture - a mosaic of images from the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft processed to yield a stereo anaglyphic view. Along with dramatic chiaroscuro, NEAR's 3-D imaging provided important measurements of the asteroid's landforms and structures, and clues to the origin of this city-sized chunk of solar system. The smallest features visible here are about 30 meters across. After spending a year in orbit around Eros, the historic Near Shoemaker spacecraft made the first ever landing on an asteroid's surface February 12, 2001.
Credit: NEAR Project, JHU APL, NASA
I was unable to source a larger version of this actual piccy, however a simple Google search will find many pics of this asteroid.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
28th Feb 03
27th Feb 03
26th Feb 03
25th Feb 03
24th Feb 03
23rd Feb 03 Courtesy of Biffa
20th Feb 03
Stereo Eros
Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid 433 Eros, 170 million kilometers away! Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 earth-years, asteroid Eros is a diminutive 40 x 14 x 14 kilometer world of undulating horizons, craters, boulders and valleys. Its unsettling scale and bizarre shape are emphasized in this picture - a mosaic of images from the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft processed to yield a stereo anaglyphic view. Along with dramatic chiaroscuro, NEAR's 3-D imaging provided important measurements of the asteroid's landforms and structures, and clues to the origin of this city-sized chunk of solar system. The smallest features visible here are about 30 meters across. After spending a year in orbit around Eros, the historic Near Shoemaker spacecraft made the first ever landing on an asteroid's surface February 12, 2001.
Credit: NEAR Project, JHU APL, NASA
I was unable to source a larger version of this actual piccy, however a simple Google search will find many pics of this asteroid.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
28th Feb 03
27th Feb 03
26th Feb 03
25th Feb 03
24th Feb 03
23rd Feb 03 Courtesy of Biffa
20th Feb 03
