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May 23, 2021
The asteroid Eros (433 Eros in the catalog of the Minor Planet Center) became the first asteroid on which the spacecraft made a soft landing. In 2000, they became the automatic interplanetary station NEAR Shoemaker, named after the American geologist Eugene Shoemaker, the founder of the scientific direction - astrogeology.
The asteroid Eros was discovered on August 13, 1898 by two astronomers simultaneously: Gustave Witt in Berlin and Auguste Charlois in Nice, but the primacy of the discovery was recognized by the German astronomer, who named it after the god of love in ancient Greek mythology. Eros became the first discovered near-Earth asteroid, belongs to the Amur group. Due to its proximity to Earth, Eros was destined to become one of the most studied asteroids.
The asteroid has an elongated shape with dimensions of 34 × 11 × 11 km, is homogeneous inside, does not have voids and compaction. Its density is stable over the entire surface and depth, close to the density of the earth's crust - 2.67 g / cm3. The assumption about the layered structure of Eros with a heavy core and a lighter outer shell was not confirmed.
In 1996, NEAR Shoemaker was sent to the asteroid Eros. In 2000, the station entered its 50-kilometer orbit, the most convenient for research. In February 2001, the spacecraft managed to carry out the first ever soft landing on an asteroid. The spacecraft has transmitted several thousand images of its surface. With the help of special instruments, its main physical parameters and chemical composition were measured and refined.
Eros belongs to the S class asteroids, which have a predominantly silicon composition with an admixture of various metals. In composition, they are close to stone meteorites falling to the Earth. Based on the data obtained from the NEAR Shoemaker station, some researchers have made calculations, according to which the asteroid may contain many minerals. This information gave rise to again talking about the industrial development of near-Earth asteroids.
Related articles:
The first asteroid with a satellite
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-first-asteroid-with-satellite.html
Asteroid Sylvia and its moons
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/05/asteroid-sylvia-and-its-moons.html
Quasi-satellite of the Earth - The asteroid Kamoalev
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/05/quasi-satellite-of-earth-asteroid.html
Asteroid Gaspra
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/05/asteroid-gaspra.html
Related links:
ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/31122/
Moscow Planetarium: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/moskovskiy-planetariy/
Asteroid: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/asteroid/
Images, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/Moscow Planetarium/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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