Asteroid Images

Lyrid Meteors Near Vega

Lyrid meteors stream out of a point in the sky near the bright star Vega and the constellation Lyra. Image credit: NASA

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Leonid Fireball

2001 Leonid fireball recorded from Hawaii. Image credit: NASA

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Leonids from Orbit

The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Midcourse Space Experiment satellite imaged this peak of the 1997 Leonid Meteor Shower from above 29 meteors over a 48 minute period entering the Earth's atmosphere. Image credit: BMDO/APL

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Hubble Space Telescope Captures Rare Jupiter Collision

This Hubble picture, taken on July 23, is the sharpest visible-light picture taken of the atmospheric debris from a comet or asteroid that collided with Jupiter on July 19. The size of the impactor is estimated to be as large as several football fields.

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Jupiter Impact Scar

This image shows a large impact shown on the bottom left on Jupiter's south polar region captured on July 20, 2009, by NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii

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Stardust Image of Asteroid Annefrank

Asteroid Annefrank is seen as an irregularly shaped, cratered body in an image taken by NASA's Stardust spacecraft during a Nov. 2, 2003, flyby of the asteroid. The camera's resolution was sufficient to show that Annefrank is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) in length, twice the predicted size from Earth-based observations.

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Asteroid AnneFrank

False colors emphasize the variations in surface brightness on asteroid Annefrank, as seen in an image taken by NASA's Stardust spacecraft during a Nov. 2, 2003, flyby of the asteroid. The variations in surface brightness result from different angles of illumination from the sun, as well as from intrinsic variations in the surface.

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Landing Site on Eros

This image mosaic of Eros' southern hemisphere, taken by NEAR Shoemaker on November 30, 2000, offers a long-distance look at the cratered terrain south of where the spacecraft will touch down on February 12, 2001. In this view, south is to the top and the landing site itself is just into the shadows, slightly left of center. The length of the asteroid is 33 kilometers (21 miles).

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Eros Up Close

This image is one of the last taken by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft on February 12, 2001, near the end of its successful descent to the surface of asteroid Eros. This view was taken from a range of 250 meters (820 feet). The image is 12 meters (39 feet) across. The cluster of rocks at the upper right measures 1.4 meters (5 feet) across.

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Eros in Color

This color image of Eros was acquired by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft on February 12, 2000, at a range of 1100 miles (1800 kilometers). The image shows approximately the color that Eros would appear to the unaided human eye. Its subtle butterscotch hue is typical of a wide variety of minerals thought to be the major components of asteroids like Eros.

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Asteroid Ida and its Satellite Dactyl in Enhanced Color

In 1993, while traveling to Jupiter, the Galileo spacecraft flew close to asteroid Ida (above left). Galileo also took images of a second object, Dactyl, the first-ever confirmed moon of an asteroid (small body at right, and enlarged in the inset box). Asteroids are small bodies of rock or metal most of which orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

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