Apollo asteroids
Earth-crossing NEOs with a semi-major axis larger than Earth's (a > 1 AU) and perihelion inside Earth's aphelion (q < 1.017 AU).
Overview
The largest class of near-Earth asteroids — Earth-crossers with orbits mostly larger than Earth's, named after 1862 Apollo.
Members
8 modelled members.
One of the most elongated known asteroids, a near-Earth Apollo object well characterised by radar.
CategoryNear-EarthTypeSilicaceous (S)Diameter≈ 5.0 × 2.0 × 2.1 kmDiscovered1951An 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.
CategoryNear-EarthTypeSilicaceous (S)Diameter≈ 4.75 × 2.4 × 1.95 kmDiscovered1989A small near-Earth Apollo asteroid on which the Yarkovsky effect — the tiny orbital push from re-radiated sunlight — was first directly measured by radar.
CategoryNear-EarthDiameter530 mDiscovered1991A small stony near-Earth 'rubble-pile' asteroid, the first body from which samples were returned to Earth, by Japan's Hayabusa in 2010.
CategoryNear-EarthTypeSilicaceous (S)Diameter≈ 535 × 294 × 209 mDiscovered1998A near-Earth binary asteroid whose small moon, Dimorphos, was struck by NASA's DART in 2022 — humanity's first test of asteroid deflection.
CategoryNear-EarthTypeSilicaceous (S)Diameter780 mDiscovered1996- 101955 BennuPHA
A small, carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid sampled by OSIRIS-REx, whose material was returned to Earth in 2023.
CategoryNear-EarthTypeCarbonaceous (C)Diameter490 mDiscovered1999 - 162173 RyuguPHA
A carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid visited by Japan's Hayabusa2, which returned surface and subsurface samples to Earth in 2020.
CategoryNear-EarthTypeCarbonaceous (C)Diameter900 mDiscovered1999 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.
CategoryNear-EarthDiameter160 m
Knowledge connections
- Group includes101955 Bennu
- Group includes162173 Ryugu
- Group includes25143 Itokawa
- Group includes65803 Didymos
- Group includesDimorphos
- Group includes4179 Toutatis
- Group includes1620 Geographos
- Group includes6489 Golevka
Sources
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
- NASA JPLJet Propulsion Laboratory / Solar System Dynamics
Orbital data, ephemerides, and small-body parameters for planets, asteroids, and comets.