![]() ![]() NASA’s recent OSIRIS-REx mission (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security – Regolith Explorer ) is the first U.S. Analysis of the data on Didymos’s orbit in the next year and beyond with determine how much DART impacted the asteroid. Launched in November 2021 and arriving at near-Earth asteroid Didymos in September 2022, DART intentionally crashed into the asteroid’s small moon, Dimorphos on September 26. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, DART, is the first space mission to test a planetary defense mechanism in deflecting an asteroid from its path. Because Hayabusa2 is still functioning, its mission has now been extended to visit two more asteroids, 2001 CC21 in 2026 and asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031. The samples returned to Earth in 2020 and will allow scientists to accurately date when the asteroid’s materials formed, and when collisions with other asteroids may have caused Ryugu’s materials to heat up. JAXA’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft launched in 2014 to survey asteroid Ryugu and collect a surface sample for return to Earth. Discovered hydrated and carbon-rich material on Vesta’s surface from impacts.Confirmed that the HED (howardites, eucrites, and diogenites) meteorites came from Vesta, specifically the large south polar basin due to the Rheasilvia impact.Ceres today harbors organics, opening the question of life.Ceres was an ocean world, showing that dwarf planets could have harbored oceans in the past and some may even continue to do so today.Dawn revealed an immense amount of information about the two large objects in the asteroid belt including NASA’s Dawn mission was the first mission to orbit two destinations: the asteroid Vesta in 2011 and the dwarf planet Ceres (the largest object in the asteroid belt which also hits the qualifications for a dwarf planet) in 2015. The Japanese spacecraft carried a mini-lander MINERVA. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Hayabusa mission, supported by NASA JPL for communications and navigation, visited the asteroid Itokawa in 2005 and returned a sample of its surface material to Earth in 2010, the first mission to do so and the second to land on an asteroid. spacecraft was the first to land on a celestial body. NEAR’s landing on Eros marked the first time a U.S. NASA’s NEAR Shoemaker mission was the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid on Valentine’s Day 2000 and despite not being designed to do so, it was the first to land on one in February 2001, transmitting data for about 2 weeks. Therefore studying them helps us understand the early stages of our solar system and many different missions have been dedicated to doing exactly that. Others may have been ejected from the main asteroid belt during collisions with other asteroids. Some asteroids may be the remnants of a planet that was destroyed early in the history of the solar system. As remnants of the building blocks of early solar system formation, asteroids contain natural resources such as water, organics, and metals. ![]() Research has shown that asteroids may have played an important role in the formation of the solar system. Asteroids are sometimes referred to as minor planets or “small Solar System bodies” (SSSBs) which are small celestial bodies that orbit the sun but are not large enough to be considered a planet. You can see some asteroids with binoculars or telescopes in the night sky, but Vesta can be seen with the naked eye. However, some have broken out of their orbits and entered the inner solar system, sometimes colliding with Earth and Mars. Most asteroids are found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and in the icy Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. ![]() Asteroids are rocky or metallic objects, composed of metals, silicates, and carbon compounds and usually shaped like potatoes ranging in size from small pebbles to 329 miles (530 kilometers) in diameter for the biggest, Vesta. ![]()
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