Asteroid Adventures: Deeper Dive

Asteroids can be found in many places in our Solar System. Which asteroids have we visited and what are we still trying to find? Take your curiosity about asteroids to the next level by exploring an array of links and resources below.

Asteroid Adventures is a live, 15-minute, family-friendly program hosted by Morrison Planetarium presenters in Hohfeld Hall. Showtimes are Monday-Friday at 1:40 pm, and Saturday-Sunday at 11:40 am, 1:40 pm, and 3:40 pm.

Missions to visit asteroids

Some space missions have gone to asteroids, and some are even bringing back material! Explore more with the links below.

• OSIRIS-Rex: first NASA mission to return an asteroid sample
• Hayabusa and Hayabusa 2: Two missions sent by JAXA (the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) to collect asteroid samples and bring them home
• DART: visited and nudged an asteroid to change its orbit

NEOs

Some asteroids are considered Near Earth Objects (NEOs). What are NEOs and where do we find them? Explore more with the links below.

• NEO basics from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
• Potentially hazardous asteroids: What do we know about them?

Asteroids we visited in the show

What are the asteroids we visit in Asteroid Adventures? Explore more with the links below.

• Itokawa: a relatively small asteroid and also a NEO
• Ceres: the largest object in the asteroid belt, also a dwarf planet
• Chelyabinsk meteor
• Tunguska event
• Chury: the only comet we visit in the show
• Object that caused the dinosaur extinction
• Didymos and Dimorphos: The double asteroid

Even more ways we’re looking for asteroids!

We don’t just explore asteroids by visiting them, or waiting for them to visit us—we are searching for asteroids all the time with various missions. Explore more with the links below.

• The Asteroid Institute with the B612 foundation is looking for asteroids using computer algorithms
• The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will search for asteroids, and many other objects, when it begins its work

Images seen in the show

Sources for the images in the show can be found below.

• Meteorite sample from Center for Meteorite Studies
• Itokawa Asteroid, from JAXA
• The comet 67P/Chury, from ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
• Comet Neowise taken over Antelope Valley, CA
• DART spacecraft, from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Labratory
• OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, from NASA/GSFC