Laser Altimetry of Small-Scale Features on 433 Eros from NEAR-Shoemaker

During the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)--Shoemaker's low-altitude flyover of asteroid 433 Eros, observations by the NEAR Laser Rangefinder (NLR) have helped to characterize small-scale surface features. On scales from meters to hundreds of meters, the surface has a fractal structure with roughness dominated by blocks, structural features, and walls of small craters. This fractal structure suggests that a single process, possibly impacts, dominates surface morphology on these scales.
The NEAR--Shoemaker mission (1) has measured the shape of asteroid 433 Eros from orbit with a laser altimeter (2), enabling quantitative assessments of the asteroid's surface morphology at scales of [...]