Asteroid Vesta with three craters known as the “snowman” seen at the top left (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCAL/MPS/DLR/IDA)
Since spotting the first "minor planet" in 1801, astronomers have discovered more than 750,000 small rocky bodies orbiting between Mars and Jupiter—asteroids. Tons of "space rock" fragments fall as meteorites onto Earth every year. Spacecraft have seen 13 asteroids at close range, with a landing on one set for late this year.
The OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft, launched by NASA in 2016, is on its way to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, with a mission to return a sample for study in 2023. The project will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact our planet—particularly as there is a relatively high probability for Bennu to do so late in the 22nd century.
Despite ongoing research, we still know little about asteroids—how they formed, what they're like, and to accurately predict when one of them might strike Earth with enough force to create widespread damage. Join Kelly Beatty, a veteran space journalist, to explore the science and science fiction of these rocky bodies.
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An incredible amount of asteroids have been discovered between 1999 and 2018. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory visualizes the increase in space rocks in this animation.
