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.

Copyright holder: Daniel Macháček

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Contact us to request publication permission from the copyright holder. Original image data dated on or about June 27, 1997