Editing 433 Eros (section)

==History==
===Discovery===
Eros was discovered on 13&nbsp;August 1898 by [[Carl Gustav Witt]] at [[Berlin Urania Observatory]] and [[Auguste Charlois]] at [[Nice Observatory]]<ref name=Scholl-Schmadel-2002/> and temporarily labeled D.Q.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ball |first1=Robert |title=The New Planet 'D.Q.,' or Eros |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-graphic-an-illustrated-weekly-newsp/159471488/ |work=The Graphic: An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper |date=April 22, 1899 |location=London |page=21 |access-date=November 21, 2024 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref> Witt was taking a two-hour exposure of [[beta Aquarii]] to secure astrometric positions of asteroid [[185 Eunike]].<ref name=Yeomans-2014/>

===Name===
Eros is named after the [[Greek mythology|Greek god]] of [[love]], [[Eros (god)|Erōs]]. It was the first minor planet to be given a male name;<ref name=Schmadel-2007/> the break with earlier tradition was made because it was the first near-Earth asteroid discovered.

===Later studies===
During the opposition of 1900–1901, a worldwide program was launched to make [[parallax]] measurements of Eros to determine the [[solar parallax]] (or distance to the Sun), with the results published in 1910 by [[Arthur Hinks]] of [[Cambridge]]<ref name=Hinks-1909/> and [[Charles D. Perrine]] of the [[Lick Observatory]], [[University of California]].<ref name="Perrine1910" /> Perrine published progress reports in 1906<ref name=Perrine1906/> and 1908.<ref name=Perrine1908/> He took 965&nbsp;photographs with the [[Crossley Reflector]] and selected 525 for measurement.<ref name=Campbell-1906/> A similar program was then carried out, during a closer approach, in 1930–1931 by [[Harold Spencer Jones]].<ref name=Jones-1941/> The value of the [[Astronomical Unit]] (roughly the Earth-Sun distance) obtained by this program was considered definitive until 1968, when [[radar]] and [[dynamical parallax]] methods started producing more precise measurements.

Eros was the first asteroid detected by the [[Arecibo Observatory]]'s radar system.<ref name=Butrica-1996/><ref name="AsteroidRadarAstronomy"/>

Eros was one of the first asteroids visited by a spacecraft, the first one orbited, and the first one soft-landed on. [[NASA]] spacecraft [[NEAR Shoemaker]] entered orbit around Eros in 2000, and landed in 2001.

===Mars-crosser===
Eros is a [[Mars-crosser asteroid]], the first known to come within the orbit of [[Mars]]. Objects in such an orbit can remain there for only a few hundred million years before the orbit is [[Perturbation (astronomy)|perturbed]] by gravitational interactions. [[Dynamical system]] modeling suggests that Eros may evolve into an [[Earth-crosser asteroid|Earth-crosser]] within as short an interval as two million years, and has a roughly 50% chance of doing so over a time scale of {{10^|8}}~{{10^|9}}&nbsp;years.<ref name=Michel-Farin-Froesc-1996/> It is a potential Earth [[Impact event|impactor]],<ref name=Michel-Farin-Froesc-1996/> about five times larger than the impactor that created [[Chicxulub crater]] and led to the [[Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event|extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs]].{{efn|name="ratio"}}

===''NEAR Shoemaker'' survey and landing===
The [[NEAR Shoemaker]] probe visited Eros twice, first with a brief [[Planetary flyby|flyby]] in 1998, and then by orbiting it in 2000, when it extensively photographed its surface. On 12&nbsp;February 2001, at the end of its mission, it landed on the asteroid's surface using its maneuvering jets.

This was the first time a Near Earth asteroid was closely visited by a spacecraft.<ref>{{cite magazine
 |first=Kathy A.
 |last=Svitil
 |date=February 2001
 |title=The end is near: The remarkable journey of a tough little space probe to the place where killer asteroids lurk
 |magazine=[[Discover Magazine]]
 |via=DiscoverMagazine.com
 |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2001/feb/cover
 |access-date=2019-09-30
 |archive-date=1 September 2020
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200901074111/http://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/the-end-is-near
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>

<gallery widths="275px" heights="175px">
File:Animation of NEAR Shoemaker trajectory.gif|Animation of NEAR Shoemaker trajectory from 19 February 1996 to 12 February 2001.{{hlist|{{legend2|magenta|''[[NEAR Shoemaker]]''}}|{{legend2|lime|Eros}}|{{legend2|RoyalBlue|[[Earth]]}}|{{legend2|cyan|[[253 Mathilde|Mathilde]]}}|{{legend2|yellow|[[Sun]]}}}}.
File:Animation of NEAR Shoemaker trajectory around 433 Eros.gif|Animation of [[NEAR Shoemaker]]{{'s}} trajectory around 433 Eros from 1 April 2000 to 12 February 2001.<br />{{legend2|magenta| [[NEAR Shoemaker]]}}{{·}}{{legend2| Lime|433 Eros}}
</gallery>