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Pictures of asteroid Gaspra, Eros and Ida
Solar System Home
Picture of 951 Gaspra
Picture of asteroid 951 Gaspra by the Galileo spacecraft in 1991. The asteroid 951Gaspra is about 19 by 12 by 11 kilometers is size. Gaspra has over 600 very small craters. The irregular shape of Gaspra as well as cracks on its surface, might mean that it broke off a larger asteroid in a large collision long ago.
Picture of Eros
Pictures of the Eros asteroid taken by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft in the year 2000. These false-color pictures are combination of other photographs used to highlight the features on Eros. Bright patches are visible on some of the inner walls of craters.
Pictures of 243 Ida
Pictures of asteroid 243 Ida taken by the Galileo spacecraft in 1993. This is approximately the natural color of Ida. Asteriod Ida has an irregular shape. Ida is 58 kilometers long and 23 kilometers wide. Ida has its own satellite: Dactyl - see the picture below this one.
Ida and Dactyl both have many craters. These craters are caused by collisions with small asteroids and comets.
Picture of Ida and Dactyl by the Galileo spacecraft in 1993.
Seen in near-infrared light, Ida and Dactyl are not the same color. Both asteroids are basically of the same rock types, but it is not clear from these observations that Dactyl was once a part of Ida.
Lets see what you have learned from these pictures ...
- What color is the asteriod Ida?
- What is found on the surface of Ida?
- How big is the asteriod 243 Ida?
- How big is the asteroid Gaspra?
- Describe what Gaspra looks like.
- What is Ida's moon called?
All images are courtesy NASA/JPL except where stated otherwise.
© Copyright 2001, 2002 - All Rights Reserved Worldwide
This page was last updated on: August 9, 2001
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