Asteroids

General Information

• Asteroid Fact Sheet
• Near Earth Object Fact Sheet
• Frequently Asked Questions - Asteroids
• Reference Books on Asteroids
• General Information on Asteroids
• Information on Asteroid 433 Eros
• Information on Asteroid 253 Mathilde

Missions to Asteroids

Current and Past Missions

• Dawn - NASA Orbiter of Asteroids Ceres and Vesta (2007)
• Rosetta - ESA Comet Mission, will fly by asteroids Steins and Lutetia (2004)
• Hayabusa (Muses-C) - ISAS (Japan) Sample Return Mission to Asteroid 25143 Itokawa (2003)
• Genesis - NASA Discovery Solar Wind Sample Return Mission (2001)
• Stardust - NASA Comet Coma Sample Return Mission, flew by asteroid AnneFrank (1999)
• Deep Space 1 - NASA Flyby Mission to asteroid Braille (1998)
• Cassini - NASA/ESA Mission to Saturn through the Asteroid Belt (1997)
• NEAR - NASA Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous with 433 Eros
• Galileo - NASA Mission to Jupiter via asteroids Gaspra and Ida

Future Missions

• NEAP - Rendezvous Mission to Asteroid 4660 Nereus (20??)

Data

• Images of Asteroids (Catalog of Spaceborne Imaging)
• Images of Asteroids (NSSDC Photo Gallery)
• Asteroid Data Tables - PDS compilations of asteroid data
• Galileo CD-ROMs
• Galileo CD-ROM volume 16 - images of Ida

Press Releases

• Press briefing Dawn mission July 7 launch - NASA Press Release, 20 June 2007
• OSIRIS asteroid sample return mission chosen for concept study - NASA Press Release, 30 October 2006
• Arecibo radar images of asteroid 216 Kleopatra - NASA Press Release, 4 May 2000
• Moon discovered orbiting asteroid 45 Eugenia - Announcement of discovery made in November 1998
• Asteroid 1997 XF₁₁ - Information on the close approach in 2028
• New masses calculated for 3 largest asteroids - U.S. Naval Observatory press release, 7 January 1998
• Crater on Vesta imaged by HST - Press release (4 Sept. 1997)