Asteroid

Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Physical / Universe / Solar System / Small Body / Asteroid
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asteroid : any of the small rocky celestial bodies — Merriam-Webster See also OneLook

Encyclopedia

Asteroids are a class of Small Solar System Bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones. These terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disk of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet, but as small objects in the outer Solar System were discovered, their volatile-based surfaces were found to more closely resemble comets, and so were often distinguished from traditional asteroids. Thus the term asteroid has come increasingly to refer specifically to the small rocky–icy and metallic bodies of the inner Solar System out to the orbit of Jupiter. They are grouped with the outer bodies—centaurs, Neptune trojans, and trans-Neptunian objects—as minor planets, which is the term preferred in astronomical circles. — Wikipedia

Asteroid Category (Wikipedia)
Asteroid (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Asteroid (COSMOS: The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy)

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Inspiration

This animation represents a map of the increased count of all known asteroids in the solar system between Jan. 1, 1999, and Jan. 31, 2018. Blue represents near-Earth asteroids. Orange represents main-belt asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. — NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Eyes is a freely available suite of computer visualization applications created by the Visualization Technology Applications and Development Team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to render scientifically accurate views of the planets studied by JPL missions and the spacecraft used in that study. Eyes on Astroids provides real-time visualization of every known asteroid or coment that is classified as a Near-Earth Object (NEO). You can also explore most of NASA’s asteroid and comet missions (past and present), from Galileo , to Lucy and DART.– Wikipedia

Eyes on Asteroids (NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System, NASA’s JPL & Cal Tech)

Bennu (NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System, NASA’s JPL & Cal Tech)
Dimorphos (NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System, NASA’s JPL & Cal Tech)
16 Psyche (NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System, NASA’s JPL & Cal Tech)

Bennu Trek is a NASA web-based portal for exploration of Bennu with a collection of data from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx. — Bennu Trek (Solar System Treks, NASA)

Bennu Trek (Solar System Treks, NASA)

Ryugu Trek is a NASA web-based portal for exploration of Ryugu with a collection of data from JAXA’s Hayabusa2. — Ryugu Trek (Solar System Treks, NASA)

Ryugu Trek (Solar System Treks, NASA)

Asteroids (Astrum, YouTube Playlist)

Articles about Asteroids (Big Think)
Talks about Asteroids (TED: Ideas Worth Spreading)

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Innovation

Science

NASA (YouTube Channel)
NASA (Official Website)

Center for Near Earth Object Studies (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Asteroid Watch (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Asteroids, Comets & Meteors (NASA Science)
Small Bodies of the Solar System (NASA Science)

Asteroids (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, YouTube Playlist)

Asteroid Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)

Asteroids (NASA Lunary and Planetary Science)

Asteroids, Comets and Other Small Worlds (Planetary Society)

Object Search (International Astronomical Union)

Asteroids (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy, Wolfram Research)
Asteroid (WolframAlpha)

Commerce

Entrepreneurship

Asteroid Campaigns (Kickstarter)

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Preservation

History

Asteroids: The Discovery of Asteroids (European Space Agency)

Library

DDC: 523.44 Asteroids (Library Thing)
Subject: Asteroids (Library Thing)

Subject: Asteroids (Open Library)

LCC: QB 651 Asteroids (Library of Congress)
Subject: Asteroids (Library of Congress)

Subject: Asteroids (WorldCat)

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Participation

Education

Astroids – Level 1 (StarChild, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA)
Astroids – Level 2 (StarChild, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA)

What is an Asteroid? (Space Place, NASA)

Asteroids and Comets (Science Trek)
Asteroids (Cosmos4Kids)
Asteroids (Space Scoop)

Asteroids, Comets, and Meteorites (Lunar & Planetary Institute)

More to Explore: Asteroids, Comets and Meteorites (NASA)
NASA Learning Objects: Small Body Data-Base Search Engine (MERLOT)

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Community

Organization

Minor Planet Center (International Astronomical Union)
Asteroids & Remote Planets Section (British Astronomical Association)

News

Asteroids (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)
Asteroid (EurekaAlert, AAAS)
Asteroids (JSTOR)
Asteroids, Comets and Meteors (Science Daily)
Asteroid (Phys.org)

Recent News from Phys.org …

For satellites as small as a briefcase, getting...
on June 2, 2026 at 2:00 pm
MIT engineers are testing a new propulsion system that combines the power and speed of conventional chemical thrusters with the precision and fuel-efficiency of electrical thrusters. The system could enable the design of nimbler, more flexible small satellites, which could perform both fast, powerful maneuvers and slower, precise adjustments, depending on the mission and moment at hand.
Icy moons' ability to host life could be revealed...
on June 2, 2026 at 9:40 am
New observatories and spacecraft missions are probing environments in our solar system that could potentially host life but have long remained hidden. Icy moons like Saturn's Enceladus and Jupiter's Europa likely contain oceans beneath frozen outer shells. But a layer of ice prohibits space probes from sampling them directly.
New study has shone a new light on searching for...
on June 1, 2026 at 2:40 pm
When astronomers discovered the first planet outside our solar system, it was orbiting a pulsar, one of the most extreme, radiation-blasted environments imaginable. Not exactly the kind of place you'd expect to find a planet, let alone a representative one. The first confirmed exoplanet was an oddity, a product of the fact that pulsar timing is extraordinarily sensitive, not a reflection of what planets are typically like.
Something just passed between us and a distant...
on May 28, 2026 at 9:20 pm
On the night of 18 December 2019, a star in our satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, briefly got brighter. Not dramatically nor explosively, just a smooth symmetrical rise and fall in brightness lasting about an hour, as though something had passed in front of it and bent its light toward us. Then it returned to normal and was never seen to vary again.
Chang'e-5 regolith studies reveal nanoscale...
on May 28, 2026 at 2:20 pm
On the moon, the lack of atmosphere and accompanying features such as biological activity, oxygen-rich air, flowing water and rain, wind, and most erosion allows the lunar regolith to preserve a long-term record of surface processes in the space environment.