NEAR Shoemaker's First Date with Asteroid Mathilde

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On June 27th, 1997, the scientific community was buzzing with excitement as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft made its first flyby of the asteroid 253 Mathilde. This encounter was a groundbreaking moment in the field of asteroid studies and marked the first time a spacecraft had ever visited a C-type asteroid.

The asteroid, named after the wife of French astronomer Maurice Loewy, is a dark, primitive body approximately 52 kilometers in diameter. As NEAR Shoemaker zipped past Mathilde at a blistering speed of 10 kilometers per second, it captured over 500 images of the asteroid's heavily cratered surface. These images revealed a fascinating world pockmarked with enormous impact craters, some nearly as large as the asteroid itself!

One of the most intriguing discoveries from this flyby was Mathilde's incredibly low density. Scientists calculated that the asteroid's density was only about 1.3 times that of water, suggesting that it might be a "rubble pile" - a loose collection of rocks held together by gravity rather than a solid body.

This flyby not only provided valuable data about C-type asteroids but also served as a crucial test for NEAR Shoemaker's systems before its primary mission to asteroid 433 Eros. The success of this encounter paved the way for future asteroid missions and deepened our understanding of these ancient relics from the early solar system.

So, the next time you look up at the night sky, remember that among the twinkling stars, there are fascinating worlds like Mathilde, each with its own unique story waiting to be discovered.

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