Asteroid Eros yields secrets from time before Earth was born

Four scientific papers published in the September 22 issue of the journal Science represent the largest one-time release of scientific data about Eros since the mission began. The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft has been in orbit around the primitive Manhattan-sized asteroid since last February.

The four scientific teams publishing this week include the NEAR X-ray Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (XGRS) team, the Multispectral Imager and now-silent Near-Infrared Spectrometer team, the Laser Rangefinder team and the Radio Science team.

The NEAR mission is managed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, MD, for NASA's Office of Space Science.

The NEAR Shoemaker web site contains the latest results and high-resolution images and information:
http://near.jhuapl.edu

Information on the XGRS result can be found at:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/GSFC/SpaceSci/solarexp/NEARXGS1.htm

(Source: NASA Press Release)

• Hypography Science Feed
• Science Forums Feed
• Science Blogs Feed