Mystery Photo

What in the world is it?

Don’t peek at the answer until you’ve given this a good try! Then, scroll down a bit and the truth will be revealed to you. What In the World Is It? No, it’s not a skeleton of a snake. This mystery photo is a montage of images showing the asteroid 433 Eros. The images were taken by the NEAR spacecraft over three weeks from January 22nd through February 12th, 2000, as the spacecraft’s distance from its target shrank from 18,000 to 1260 miles (29,000 to 2,025 kilometers). Eros is the second largest near-Earth asteroid and spins on its axis once every 5 hours, 16 minutes. In the last images shown here, details of Eros’s surface have become visible. Heavy cratering has pockmarked the irregular asteroid’s surface. One side is dominated by a scallop-rimmed gouge, and the opposite side by a conspicuous, raised-rimmed crater. Credit: (NASA) Back