<i>Extract from the image's caption at the NASA Planetary Photojournal:</i>
This set of color images of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/asteroid" class="extiw" title="en:asteroid">en:asteroid</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/243_Ida" class="extiw" title="en:243 Ida">en:243 Ida</a> was taken by the imaging system on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_spacecraft" class="extiw" title="en:Galileo spacecraft">en:Galileo spacecraft</a> as it approached and raced past the asteroid on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_28" class="extiw" title="en:August 28">en:August 28</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993" class="extiw" title="en:1993">en:1993</a>. These images were taken through the 4100-angstrom (violet), 7560-angstrom (infrared) and 9680- angstrom (infrared) filters and have been processed to show Ida as it would appear to the eye in approximately natural color. The stark shadows portray Ida's irregular shape, which changes its silhouetted outline when seen from different angles. More subtle shadings reveal surface topography (such as craters) and differences in the physical state and composition of the soil ("<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/regolith" class="extiw" title="en:regolith">en:regolith</a>").
NASA/JPL/USGS
1998-06-04
<p><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00330">http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00330</a> (subsequently resized)
</p>
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