Pictures of only the third asteroid to be imaged from close-up have been sent back to Earth by the unfortunate Near spacecraft.

In spite of an aborted engine burn that postponed the arrival of the Near (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) spacecraft with asteroid Eros in January, some pictures of the asteroid were obtained during a late December flyby.

Artist's impression of Near at Eros

Asteroids have a mysterious origin. They number thousands of objects that chiefly orbit the Sun in-between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter.

They may be the leftovers from the formation of the planets. Some of them may be the shattered fragments of larger bodies that were broken during impacts when the solar system was young.

Near took 1100 images of Eros during a two-hour encounter during which time Eros turned half a rotation. The closest image was obtained from a distance of 3,300 miles (5,300 km.)