January 23 


23 January 1998


Image of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean taken by the NEAR spacecraft on January 23, 1998. Credit: NASA/JHU APL

On January 23, 1998, NEAR spacecraft, on a mission to asteroid Eros, made its Earth gravity assist flyby. The closest approach was 540 km at 7:23 UT, altering the orbital inclination from 0.5 to 10.2 degrees and the aphelion distance from 2.17 to 1.77 au, nearly matching those of Eros. 

   NEAR swooped over Eurasia, following a track that took it low over Saudi Arabia. As the spacecraft headed out into the southern sky it looked back at Earth, imaging the South African coast, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. All instruments were active. Telescopic observers photographed and tracked the spacecraft as it sped though the sky. As NEAR receded from Earth, it took a "movie" of the spinning Earth from high above Antarctica, based on hundreds of image acquired over one and a half days.

Image of the region southwest of the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, taken from a range of 685 kilometers on January 23, 1998

Montage of images of Earth and the Moon acquired by NEAR on January 23, 1998. Both bodies were viewed from a range of 400,000 kilometers, approximately the same as the distance between them. In this perspective, never seen before, both our planet and its moon are at the relative size that each appears when viewed from the other. But they are viewed from above their south poles, a perspective not attainable from either body because the Moon orbits high above Earth's equator. For viewing purposes, the Moon is shown five times brighter, and ten times closer to Earth, than in reality.


© 2026, Andrew Mirecki



23 January 2003

Artist's impression of Pioneer 10 looking back on the inner Solar System while on its way to interstellar space. Credit: Don Davis, acrylic on board for NASA Ames

The last radio signal from the Pioneer 10 spacecraft was received on Earth on January 23, 2003. The spacecraft was then 12.23 billion kilometers (82 au) from Earth and the signal took 11 hours and 20 minutes to reach our planet. Launched on March 3, 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to fly by Jupiter and to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System. The last successful reception of telemetry took place on April 27, 2002, from a distance of 80.22 au.

   Pioneer 10 is currently travelling in the direction of the constellation Taurus. In about 90,000 years, Pioneer 10 will pass about 0.23 parsecs (0.75 light-years) from the late K-type star HIP 117795. This is the closest stellar flyby in the next few million years of all the Pioneer, Voyager, and New Horizons spacecraft, which are leaving the Solar System.

   In case of an intercept by intelligent life, Pioneer 10 carries an aluminum plaque with diagrams of a man and a woman, the solar system, and its location relative to 14 pulsars.

The plaque attached to Pioneer 10. Credit: NASA


© 2026, Andrew Mirecki

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