Near-Earth Objects

A carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid visited by Japan's Hayabusa2, which returned surface and subsurface samples to Earth in 2020.

A near-Earth binary asteroid whose small moon, Dimorphos, was struck by NASA's DART in 2022 — humanity's first test of asteroid deflection.

A small near-Earth Apollo asteroid on which the Yarkovsky effect — the tiny orbital push from re-radiated sunlight — was first directly measured by radar.

A small, carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid sampled by OSIRIS-REx, whose material was returned to Earth in 2023.

The small moon of the near-Earth asteroid Didymos and the impact target of NASA's DART mission — the first object whose orbit humans deliberately changed. ESA's Hera will survey the aftermath.

A near-Earth asteroid famous for its very close but non-impacting approach to Earth on 13 April 2029; impacts for the foreseeable future have been ruled out by radar and tracking.

The first near-Earth asteroid discovered and the first to be orbited and landed on — by NASA's NEAR Shoemaker in 2000–2001.

A small stony near-Earth 'rubble-pile' asteroid, the first body from which samples were returned to Earth, by Japan's Hayabusa in 2010.

An elongated near-Earth asteroid in a chaotic, tumbling rotation, flown past by China's Chang'e 2 in 2012; it crosses both Earth's and Mars's orbits.

One of the most elongated known asteroids, a near-Earth Apollo object well characterised by radar.

The prototype of the Atira class — near-Earth asteroids whose orbits lie entirely inside Earth's orbit — and itself a binary system.