 It also has one of the slowest rotation periods of the known asteroids—most asteroids have a rotation period in the range of 2–24 hours.Because of the slow rotation rate, NEAR Shoemaker was only able to photograph 60% of the asteroid's surface.The slow rate of rotation may be accounted for by a satellite orbiting the asteroid, but a search of the NEAR images revealed none larger than 10 km in diameter out to 20 times the radius of Mathilde.