Figure 8-19 Asteroid Eros The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft took these images of asteroid Eros in February 1999. (a) The top of the figure is the asteroid’s north polar region. Eros’s dimensions are 33 km × 13 km × 13 km (21 mi × 8 mi × 8 mi) and it rotates every 5¼ hours. Its density is 2700 kg/m3 (4550 lb/yd3), close to the average density of Earth’s crust and twice as dense as asteroid Mathilde. (b) Looking into the large crater near the top of (a), which is 5.3 km (3.3 mi) across. (c) This is the penultimate image taken by NEAR Shoemaker before it gently landed on Eros. Taken from an altitude of 250 m (820 ft), the image is only 12 m (13 yd) across. You can see rocks and boulders buried to different depths in the regolith.