In pictures: Asteroid landing

The Near Shoemaker spacecraft sent back some historic images as it came in to land on the surface of the asteroid Eros.

The Near (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) Shoemaker probe orbited the asteroid for a year before landing

The Eros landing site - the asteroid is 33km (21 miles) long and 13km (eight miles) wide

The asteroid is some 315 million km (196 million miles) from Earth

Coming in to land - 700m (2,500 feet) above the surface

Just 250m away - the upper right cluster of rocks is 1.4m across

The craft's last image, at a range of 120m (394 feet)