Notable Asteroids

These bodies are some of the best known asteroids, essentially chunks of rock that measure in size from few feet to several miles in diameter (small asteroids are called meteoroids)

                                         Ceres

Picture
At one-quarter the diameter of Earth's moon, Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt and contains more than one-third the estimated total mass of all asteroids. In 2006, Ceres was added to a new list of dwarf planets along with Pluto

                                        Gaspra

Picture
Gaspra is probably made of a mixture of rocky and metallic minerals. Its surface is covered with impact craters. From the number of small craters on its surface, it's estimated that Gaspra is about 200 million years old

                                         Vesta

Picture
The third largest asteroid in the asteroid belt, Vesta has the most geologically diverse terrain of the large asteroids Scientists suggest that ancient lava flows, meteorite impacts, and radioactive "sharpnel" shaped the complex surface of this asteroid

                                            Eros

Picture
This odd-shaped body is a near-Earth asteroid found outside the main asteroid belt. Eros may be a chunk knocked off of a larger body, such as another asteroid. It is almost twice the size of Manhattan Island

                                   Binary Asteroids

Picture
While asteroids are not planets, they can have moons. In 1993, the Galileo spacecraft discovered a 1-mile-wide (1.6-kilometer-wide) moon named Dactyl orbiting around a 19-mile-wide (30.6-kilometer-wide) asteroid named Ida. Since then, about two dozen of these binary asteroids have been discovered