WASHINGTON -- New analyses of thousands of close-up images yield an emerging picture of asteroid 433 Eros -- a battered mini-world, dotted with mysterious "ponds" of bluish dust and strewn end to end with debris from a single, recent collision.

The images were taken by NASAs Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)-Shoemaker spacecraft, which orbited Eros for a year, then made a risky and triumphant descent and landing there in February 2001. On the way down, the probe snapped a special set of 70 images.

Those snapshots reveal that Eros is covered with an abundance of large ejected rocks (ejecta blocks) blasted from its surface after impacts with other space objects, as well as smooth areas composed of very fine particles.

By mapping the whereabouts of big ejecta blocks on Eros, an amazing pattern can be seen, said Joseph Veverka, NEARs science team leader at Cornell University.

"Its clear they all come from the largest, most recent crater," he said. "For years, weve been worrying about what happens to ejecta the debris from an impact on small asteroids where theres almost no gravity. It turns out, a lot of stuff apparently stays behind. We can actually map it for the first time."

His research and other new analyses of Eros data from the NEAR mission were published in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

In a separate keen-eyed study of the Eros pictures, Peter Thomas, a senior research associate at Cornell, also reports that most large ejecta blocks scattered about the asteroid stem from one source. They were launched from the relatively young impact crater, provisionally labeled Shoemaker.

The object that created the nearly 5 mile (8 kilometer) diameter Shoemaker crater carved out thousands of blocks of various sizes. A large fraction of the ejecta created prior to Shoemakers making are likely to be buried or eroded, Thomas reports.

"It looks like most of the big boulders come from this one big crater," Thomas told SPACE.com. "Its the start of how to unravel what takes place on an asteroid. We can make comparisons to physical models based on our experience with the Moon, other planets and planetary satellites. We can begin to figure out what craters can throw out."

Mark Robinson, a space scientist from Northwestern University, is puzzling over NEAR-Shoemaker images that show a wide variety of land forms on Eros.

"Im very surprised that the surface of the asteroid is so interesting. Theres such a diversity of geologic features," he said.

Robinson was on the receiving end of thousands of images relayed from the probe as it looped Eros, and then touched down on the body. "I often felt like I was trying to catch Niagara Falls in a bucket. It was exciting but also very frustrating not being able to do a lot of science during the mission," he said.

In analyzing Eros pictures, Robinson and his colleagues have identified distinctive, flat deposits within many craters, smooth ponds of finer material sorted from the upper portion of the asteroids regolith -- the top layer of surface material. Ponded material was seen in the final photos relayed from NEAR-Shoemaker as it glided to Eros surface.

One proposed idea of how large ponds of this finer material are created is through electrostatic charging. Particles in an area bathed by sunlight on the airless bodys terminator pick up a charge. This charging can then levitate tiny particles, with ponds of the small-sized grains generally located in areas on Eros that have the lowest gravity, Robinson writes in Nature.

Electrostatically lifted particles were observed on the Moon by Surveyor robot landers, as well as by Apollo astronauts, Robinson told SPACE.com.

Robinson said the NEAR-Shoemaker craft appears to have landed on a pond. That factor likely contributed to the spacecraft surviving the touchdown. "When we hit, we hit on something that absorbed the shock. It was like landing on a sandy beach rather than on concrete," he said.

Veverka said that Eros has much to teach us. "We dont have the geological insight right now to figure out some of the things we see," he said.

"The news is good. Theres some really interesting stuff, geologically, thats going on that deserves more study with a future mission," Veverka said.

A big advantage of returning to Eros is that the entire body has now been mapped. Secondly, Eros is easy to get to given its orbit that swings it close to Earth.

"With all the preliminary exploration done, theres a good argument for going back," Veverka said.

Different things seem to happen in different places on Eros, he said, and a lander jumping from spot to spot would be ideal.

"If you can land an orbiter on an asteroid, which NEAR-Shoemaker proved is possible, you should be able to land a lander," Veverka said.

On the other hand, Veverka added, there are thousands of asteroids that are diverse in nature, also deserving of intensive study by spacecraft. "But Ill go anywhere," he said.