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Capture the cosmos > Comets > Dig deeper (cont'd) > Fast Facts: Asteroid Eros
| Description | Eros, named for the god of love, is a near-Earth asteroid, which often comes close to our planet. A huge amount of information about this object was discovered by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission, which landed on the asteroid in 2000. |
| Age | About the same age as the Sun: 4.5 billion years |
| Location | Inner solar system |
| Avg. distance from the Sun | 218.7 million kilometers (135.9 million miles) |
| Diameter | 33 km x 13 km x 13 km (or 20 mi X 8 mi X 8 mi) |
| Mass | 7.2 x 1018 kilograms |
| Orbital period around the Sun | 1.76 Earth years (643 Earth days) |
| Number of moons | 0 |
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Eros is the first asteroid to be landed upon
by a spacecraft.
(Image courtesy of NASA) |
Capture the cosmos > Comets > Dig deeper (cont'd) > Fast Facts: Asteroid Eros