Close encounter with Eros Asteroid

[pH-7]

The past week has been an exciting week for me 'cause a series of Space Odyssey programmes shown on SCV’s Discovery channel have brought me up-to-date of the recent discoveries in astronomy. All of the sudden, I feel unbearably sorry to realise my ignorance to the world I'm living in – our solar system, the galaxy and beyond.

The programme reported Shoemaker, the first ever spacecraft landed on Eros asteroid surface under Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous[1] mission. Out of my curiosity, I started to locate the current position of Eros asteroid using the simulator[2] on NASA website. Tracing the orbit of Eros, the simulator forecasts that this asteroid of the size of Mt Everest will have close encounter with Mars and Earth on year 2010 and 2012 respectively.


Eros's location as of Oct 2003 (blue line represents Eros's orbit)


Eros's close encounter with Mars (blue line represents Eros's orbit, white line represents Mar's orbit)


Eros's close encounter with our home (blue line represents Eros's orbit, white line represents Earth's orbit)

References

1. Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous
http://near.jhuapl.edu/

2. NASA Orbit Simulator (for Eros 433)
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=433