Mosaic of Mathilde Date: 06.27.1997 This is a mosaic of the main belt asteroid 253 Mathilde made up of four images returned by the NEAR spacecraft during its flyby. The images were taken on 27 June 1997 from a distance of 2400 km.
The portion of the asteroid visible is about 59 x 47 km and the resolution is roughly 300 m. Three large craters can be discerned, one at lower center, one at the top left viewed edge-on, and one at lower right, also viewed edge-on. The crater at center is estimated to be 10 km deep.
These large craters, the abundance of smaller craters, and the angular shape point to a history of heavy bombardment. Lighting is from the upper right. (NEAR Mathilde 199706271400)
