Spaceship shoots asteroid movie

Northern hemisphere of Eros

Nasa has released more dramatic moving pictures of the surface of an asteroid millions of kilometres from Earth. The images were shot by a remote camera on the Near Shoemaker spacecraft.

The probe started flying over Eros 39 days ago, turning the first-ever images of the space rock's surface features into a "flyover movie".

The most recent movie was released on Friday, filmed from a range of 205km (127 miles).

The northern hemisphere is toward the bottom of the frame.

Changing light conditions highlight surface features such as large craters, many of which have bright markings on their interior walls.

The "saddle" region of Eros

An earlier movie released on Thursday showed the "saddle" region of Eros.

The images were filmed with the Sun at different positions in the sky, so that features with different orientations became more evident.

Brightness changes also reveal differences in the reflectivity of the surface materials, as well as topography.

Nasa scientists hope the study of Eros, which is about 245 million km (152m miles) from Earth, will help explain how planets evolved.

The spacecraft was renamed the Near Shoemaker last week in honour of Dr Eugene Shoemaker, a geologist who influenced decades of research on the role of asteroids and comets in shaping the planets.