Small Bodies Gallery
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Asteroid 1997 QK1 is shown to be an elongated, peanut-shaped near-Earth object in this series of 28 radar images obtained…
This series of 41 radar images obtained by the Deep Space Network's Goldstone Solar System Radar on July 28, 2025,…
This animation depicts the motion of small near-Earth asteroid 2024 PT5 as it orbits the Sun.
This series of radar images obtained by the DSN's Goldstone Solar System Radar near Barstow, California, on Sept. 16, 2024,…
This series of radar images obtained by the Goldstone Solar System Radar near Barstow, California, on Aug. 18, 2024, shows…
This sunset photo shows NASA's Deep Space Station 14 (DSS-14), the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications…
These seven radar observations by the Deep Space Network's Goldstone Solar System Radar shows the mile-wide asteroid 2011 UL21 during…
Because close approaches by asteroids the size of 2024 MK are relatively rare, JPL's planetary radar team gathered as much…
The day before asteroid 2008 OS7 made its close approach with Earth on Feb. 2, 2024, this series of images…
Psyche undergoes vibration testing at JPL in March 2022 to ensure the spacecraft can withstand the jostling of launch.
This artist's concept depicts NASA's Psyche spacecraft with its large solar arrays fully deployed and one of its four Hall-effect…
Team members prepare to integrate one of two solar arrays on NASA's Psyche spacecraft inside the Astrotech Space Operations facility…
Technicians begin to retract one of the two solar arrays attached to NASA's Psyche spacecraft. This photo was taken on…
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near…
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near…
This collage represents a selection of NASA radar observations of near-Earth asteroid 2006 HV5 on April 25, 2023, less than…
This collage represents NASA radar observations of near-Earth asteroid 2011 AG5 on Feb. 4, 2023, one day after its close…
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on Dec. 8, 2022, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the…
NASA's NEO Surveyor is seen in this illustration against an infrared observation of a starfield made by the agency's WISE…
This illustration depicts NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft prior to impact at the Didymos binary asteroid system.
This collage and animation represent NASA radar observations of near-Earth asteroid 7335 1989 JA on May 26, 2022, one day…
Members of the media view the Psyche spacecraft on April 11, 2022, inside a clean room at JPL. The spacecraft…
A member of the media interviews Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the principal investigator of NASA's Psyche mission, in front of the spacecraft…
This illustration, updated in April 2022, depicts NASA's Psyche spacecraft. Set to launch in August 2022, the Psyche mission will…
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is placed into the ultra-sturdy vacuum chamber at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is seen on its way to the vacuum chamber at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern…
This animation shows asteroid 2022 EB5's predicted orbit around the Sun before impacting into the Earth's atmosphere on March 11,…
Only one of the 37-foot-long (11.3-meter-long) arrays on NASA's Psyche spacecraft can be unfolded at a time during testing in…
An engineer examines a panel on a stowed solar array on NASA's Psyche spacecraft prior to a deployment test in…
Before a deployment test in a clean room at JPL, engineers examine one of Psyche's two solar arrays. The arrays…
The first of two solar arrays on NASA's Psyche spacecraft is successfully deployed in JPL's storied High Bay 2 clean…
These images and animation represent NASA radar observations of 4660 Nereus on December 10, 2021, before the asteroid's close approach…
This illustration shows how NASA's Psyche spacecraft will explore asteroid Psyche, starting with a high-altitude Orbit A and gradually lowering…
This diagram shows the orbit of binary asteroid Didymos around the Sun.
This photo shows Psyche's multispectral imager, in the process of assembly and testing on September 13, 2021, at Malin Space…
Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California integrate the magnetometer instrument into the agency's Psyche spacecraft on June…
At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an engineer inspects the gamma ray and neutron spectrometer as it is integrated into the…
At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, engineers integrate a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer into the agency's Psyche spacecraft. The instrument…
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is photographed in July 2021 during the mission's assembly, test, and launch operations phase at JPL. Hall…
Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory work to integrate Hall thrusters into the agency's Psyche spacecraft in July 2021. One…
At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, engineers prepare to integrate four Hall thrusters onto the agency's Psyche spacecraft. The thrusters will…
At left, xenon plasma emits a blue glow from an electric Hall thruster identical to those that will propel NASA's…
This series of images captured on Aug. 22, 2021, shows asteroid 2016 AJ193 rotate as it was observed by Goldstone's…
This figure represents the radar echo from asteroid 2021 PJ1 on Aug. 14, 2021. The horizontal axis represents the difference…
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is in the midst of system integration and test at JPL. This image was taken on August…
On March 21, 2021, the large asteroid 2001 FO32 made a close approach with our planet, passing at a distance…
This illustration, created in March 2021, depicts the 140-mile-wide (226-kilometer-wide) asteroid Psyche, which lies in the main asteroid belt between…
This illustration, created in March 2021, depicts the 140-mile-wide (226-kilometer-wide) asteroid Psyche, which lies in the main asteroid belt between…
These images of asteroid Apophis were recorded by radio antennas at the Deep Space Network's Goldstone complex in California and…
Technicians power on the main body of NASA's Psyche spacecraft, called the Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassis, at Maxar Technologies…
Using data collected by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, this animation shows the trajectories of rock particles after being ejected from asteroid…
The circled streak in the center of this image is asteroid 2020 QG, which came closer to Earth than any…
This illustration shows asteroid 2020 QG's trajectory bending during its close approach to Earth. The asteroid is the closest known…
Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE appears as a string of fuzzy red dots in this composite of several heat-sensitive infrared images…
Engineers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, make progress on the spectrometer for NASA's Psyche spacecraft,…
An electric Hall thruster, identical to those that will be used to propel NASA's Psyche spacecraft, undergoes testing at NASA's…
Thumbs-up for a successful test. Psyche engineers test an electric Hall thruster identical to those that will propel NASA's Psyche…
A technician prepares to integrate part of the electric propulsion system onto the main body of NASA's Psyche spacecraft at…
This artist's concept depicts the asteroid Psyche, the target of NASA's Psyche mission.
This artist's concept, updated as of June 2020, depicts NASA's Psyche spacecraft.
This image from NASA's NEOWISE shows asteroids Klotho and Lina. Both orbit out in the main asteroid belt between Mars…
This animation illustrates the modeled trajectories of particles that were ejected from Bennu's surface on Jan. 19, 2019.
This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface on Jan. 6, 2019, was created by combining two images…
This animation shows the distance between the Apophis asteroid and Earth at the time of the asteroid's closest approach.
This image shows comet C/2018 Y1 Iwamoto as imaged in multiple exposures of infrared light by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field…
These three radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2003 SD220 were obtained on Dec. 15-17. This will be the asteroid's closest…
These two radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2003 SD220 were obtained on Dec. 18 and 19. The radar images reveal…
Artist's illustration of the trajectory of asteroid 2017 YE5 through the solar system. At its closest approach to Earth, the…
Bi-static radar images of the binary asteroid 2017 YE5 from the Arecibo Observatory and the Green Bank Observatory on June…
This optical composite image shows asteroid 2017 YE5, taken on June 30, 2018, by the Cadi Ayyad University Morocco Oukaimeden…
Radar images of the binary asteroid 2017 YE5 from NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar (GSSR). The observations, conducted on June…
Artist's concept of what binary asteroid 2017 YE5 might look like. The two objects showed striking differences in radar reflectivity,…
These are the discovery observations of asteroid 2018 LA from the Catalina Sky Survey, taken June 2, 2018. About 8…
This frame from a movie shows the progression of NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) investigation for the mission's…
These radar images of near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon were generated by astronomers at the National Science Foundation's Arecibo Observatory on…
This frame from an animation portrays a comet as it approaches the inner solar system. Light from the Sun warms…
This frame from a sequence of four images of the asteroid name 2014 AA, seen as a speck of light…
This frame from an animation shows NASA's NEOWISE's third year of survey data with the spacecraft discovering 97 previously unknown…
This frame from a movie of asteroid 2014 JO25 was generated using radar data collected by NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep…
This composite of 30 images of asteroid 2014 JO25 was generated with radar data collected using NASA's Goldstone Solar System…
This image showcases changes identified in high-resolution images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during more than two years of monitoring by ESA's…
A 100 foot-wide, 28-million-pound boulder, was found to have moved 460 feet on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the lead up to…
Several sites of cliff collapse on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were identified during ESA's Rosetta's mission. The yellow arrows mark the fractures…
This composite of 11 images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 was generated with radar data collected using NASA's Goldstone Solar System…
This composite of 25 images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 was generated with radar data collected using NASA's Goldstone Solar System…
NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft observed the comet during the final month of the Rosetta mission, while the comet was not…
This view shows Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen by the OSIRIS wide-angle camera on ESA's Rosetta spacecraft on September 29, 2016,…
This frame from a movie shows the progression of NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) investigation for the mission's…
These radar images of comet P/2016 BA14 were taken on March 22, 2016, by scientists using an antenna of NASA's…
These radar images of comet P/2016 BA14 were taken on March 23, 2016, by scientists using an antenna of NASA's…
The elongated asteroid in this radar image, named 2003 SD220, will safely fly past Earth on Dec. 24, 2015, at…
This image of an asteroid that is at least 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) long was taken on Dec. 17, 2015,…
Asteroid 1998 WT24 (left in December 2001, right on December 11, 2015) taken by NASA's the 230-foot (70-meter) DSS-14 antenna…
An expanded view of comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen) is shown here. NASA's WISE spacecraft observed this comet on April 20th,…
NASA's NEOWISE spacecraft observed the Oort cloud comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen) on April 20th, 2010, as it traveled through the…
The 230-foot (70-meter) DSS-14 antenna at Goldstone, Ca. obtained these radar images of asteroid 2015 TB145 on Oct. 31, 2015.
This partial frame from an animation was generated using radar data collected by the National Science Foundation's 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo…
These first radar images of 2015 TB145 from the National Science Foundation's 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, indicate…
Subsurface temperature maps of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, showing the southern hemisphere of the comet. The maps are based on observations obtained with…
