Asteroid 433 Eros was discovered on the same night (13 August 1898) by Gustav Witt in Berlin and Auguste Charlois at Nice. Witt was taking a 2-hour exposure of Beta Aquarii to secure astrometric positions of asteroid 185 Eunike. Read more
Asteroid (433) Eros is at Opposition in the constellation Hydra on the 1st March, 2012.
Magnitude: 9.2 Relative velocity: 5.52 km/s Distance to Earth: 0.225 AU = 87.7 lunar distances Distance to Sun: 1.180 AU
This opposition is observable mostly from the southern hemisphere. The asteroid will pass close to the binary star Theta Antliae (HD 84367) in the constellation Antlia on the 10th March, 2012. The animation is 6 hour steps from the 1st to the 13th March
This simple cylindrical map projection of an Eros image mosaic is labelled with proposed names for most of the asteroids larger features. Because the images in the mosaic cover an irregularly shaped object viewed under greatly varying lighting geometries, the image boundaries cannot be perfectly matched. Source (PDF)
The 17000 metre wide asteroid (433) Eros (1898 DQ) will make a close pass (69.5 lunar distances, 0.1787 AU), travelling at 5.95 km/second, to the Earth-Moon system on the 31st January, 2012 @ 11:00 UT ±00:01.