The Shape of 433 Eros from the NEAR-Shoemaker Laser Rangefinder

Creators: Zuber, Maria T.; Smith, David E.; Cheng, Andrew F.; Garvin, James B.; Aharonson, Oded; Cole, Timothy D.; Dunn, Peter J.; Guo, Yanping; Lemoine, Frank G.; Neumann, Gregory A.; Rowlands, David D.; Torrence, Mark H.

Abstract

Measurements from the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)–Shoemaker Laser Rangefinder (NLR) indicate that asteroid 433 Eros is a consolidated body with a complex shape dominated by collisions. The offset between the asteroid's center of mass and center of figure indicates a small deviation from a homogeneous internal structure that is most simply explained by variations in mechanical structure. Regional-scale relief and slope distributions show evidence for control of topography by a competent substrate. Impact crater morphology is influenced by both gravity and structural control. Small-scale topography reveals ridges and grooves that may be generated by impact-related fracturing.

Additional Information

© 2000 American Association for the Advancement of Science. 30 May 2000; accepted 30 August 2000. We thank the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft, mission operations, and navigation teams for support. We also thank B. Williams and D. Yeomans for providing tracking data used to calculate the orbits, P. Thomas for helpful discussions, D. Pavlis and J. McCarthy for assistance in tracking data analysis, and M. Nolan for review. The NLR investigation is supported by the NASA NEAR-Shoemaker Project.

	All versions	This version
Views	0	0
Downloads	0	0
Data volume	0 Bytes	0 Bytes

The Shape of 433 Eros from the NEAR-Shoemaker Laser Rangefinder

Abstract

Additional Information

Additional details