Asteroid 253 Mathilde in color

Filed under pretty pictures, asteroid 253 Mathilde, amateur image processing, asteroids, NEAR, global views

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NEAR captured this photo of asteroid 253 Mathilde on June 27, 1997; Mathilde was the target of a flyby encounter nearly three years before the mission went on to orbit asteroid 433 Eros.

NASA / JHUAPL / Cornell / colorized image by Daniel Macháček

This image has been artificially colorized to match its likely appearance to a human observer. As a C-type asteroid, Mathilde is very dark, darker than asphalt. It is 59 by 47 kilometers in diameter.

Original image data dated on or about June 27, 1997.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. For uses not allowed by that license, contact us to request publication permission from the copyright holder: Daniel Macháček