List of exceptional asteroids

Ceres, the largest asteroid, as seen by Hubble Space Telescope (ACS). The contrast has been enhanced to reveal surface details.

The following is a collection of lists of notable asteroids in the Solar system, sometimes also including minor planets beyond the orbit of Jupiter. For a more complete list of asteroids in sequential numerical order, see List of asteroids.

Note: each asteroid is given a unique sequential identifying number after its orbit is precisely determined. Prior to this, asteroids are known only by their systematic name or provisional designation, such as "1950 DA".

Largest diameter (cis-Neptunian)

Estimating the sizes of asteroids from observations is difficult due to their irregular shapes, varying albedo (reflectivity), and small angular diameter. For example pure C-type asteroids are much darker than most. Asteroids with only one or two axes measured may have a falsely inflated geometric mean diameter if the unknown second and/or third axis is noticeably smaller than the primary axis.

Name	Diameter (km) (geometric mean)	Dimensions (km)	Mean Distance from Sun (in AU)	Date Discovered	Discoverer	Class
1 Ceres	952	975×975×909	2.766	January 1 1801	Piazzi, G.	G
2 Pallas	531	570×525×500	2.773	March 28 1802	Olbers, H. W.	B
4 Vesta	529	578×560×458	2.361	March 29 1807	Olbers, H. W.	V
10 Hygiea	407	500×385×350	3.137	April 12 1849	de Gasparis, A.	C
704 Interamnia	326	350×304	3.067	October 2 1910	Cerulli, V.	F
52 Europa	301	360×315×240	3.101	February 4 1858	Goldschmidt, H.	C
511 Davida	289	357×294×231	3.170	May 30 1903	Dugan, R. S.	C
87 Sylvia	286	385×265×230	3.490	May 16 1866	Norman Robert Pogson	X
10199 Chariklo	258		15.87	February 15 1997	James V. Scotti, Spacewatch	Centaur
31 Euphrosyne	256		3.148	September 1 1854	Ferguson, J.	C
15 Eunomia	255	330×245×205	2.646	July 29 1851	de Gasparis, A.	S
624 Hektor	241	370×195(×195)	5.203	February 10 1907	Kopff, A.	D
65 Cybele	237		3.437	March 8 1861	Tempel, E. W.	C
3 Juno	236	290×240×190	2.668	September 1 1804	Harding, K. L.	S
88 Thisbe	232		2.766	June 15 1866	Peters, C. H. F.	B
16 Psyche	230	280×230×190	2.919	March 17 1852	de Gasparis, A.	M
324 Bamberga	229		2.682	February 25 1892	Palisa, J.	C
19 Fortuna	225		2.443	August 22 1852	John Russell Hind	G
532 Herculina	225		2.770	April 20 1904	Max Wolf	S
451 Patientia	225		3.060	December 4 1899	Auguste Charlois
48 Doris	222		3.109	September 19 1857	Goldschmidt, H.	C
375 Ursula	216		3.124	September 18 1893	Auguste Charlois
107 Camilla	215	285×205×170	3.479	November 17 1868	Pogson, N. R.	C
45 Eugenia	213	305×220×145	2.720	June 27 1857	Goldschmidt, H.	F
29 Amphitrite	212		2.554	March 1 1854	Marth, A.	S
423 Diotima	209		3.066	December 7 1896	Charlois, A.	C
13 Egeria	206	217×196	2.576	November 2 1850	de Gasparis, A.	G
94 Aurora	205		3.159	September 6 1867	Watson, J. C.	C
7 Iris	201	225×190×190	2.385	August 13 1847	Hind, J. R.	S

The number of bodies grows rapidly as the size decreases.

The inner main belt (defined as the region interior to the 3:1 Kirkwood gap at 2.50 AU) has few large asteroids. Only 4 Vesta, 19 Fortuna, and 7 Iris qualify for the above list.

For a listing by mass see here.

Brightest asteroids (from Earth)

Although only Vesta ever attains a brightness sufficient to be visible to the naked eye, the following asteroids can all reach a magnitude higher or equal to the maximum 8.3 attained by Saturn's moon Titan, which was, owing to its closeness to easily visible Saturn, discovered 145 years before the first asteroid was found.

It is noteworthy that none of the asteroids in the outer part of the asteroid belt can ever attain this brightness. Even Hygiea and Interamnia rarely reach magnitudes of above 10.0. This is due to the different distribution of spectral types within different sections of the asteroid belt being such that the highest-albedo asteroids are all concentrated closer to Mars, and much lower albedo C and D types being common in the outer belt.

Those asteroids with very high eccentricities will only reach their maximum magnitude on unusual occasions when their perihelion is very close to a heliocentric conjunction with Earth.

Asteroid	Maximum opposition magnitude	Mean Distance from Sun (in AU)	Eccentricity of orbit
4 Vesta	5.1	2.361	0.089172
2 Pallas	6.4	2.773	0.230725
1 Ceres	6.7	2.766	0.079905
7 Iris	6.7	2.385	0.231422
433 Eros	6.8	1.458	0.222725
6 Hebe	7.5	2.425	0.201726
3 Juno	7.5	2.668	0.258194
18 Melpomene	7.5	2.296	0.218708
15 Eunomia	7.9	2.643	0.187181
8 Flora	7.9	2.202	0.156207
324 Bamberga	8.0	2.682	0.338252
1036 Ganymed	8.1	2.6657	0.533710
9 Metis	8.1	2.387	0.121441
192 Nausikaa	8.2	2.404	0.246216
20 Massalia	8.3	2.409	0.142880

Retrograde and highly-inclined

Asteroids with orbital inclinations greater than 90° orbit in a retrograde direction. There are only eight (as of August 2004) retrograde asteroids known, only two of which are numbered. This makes them the rarest group of all. High-inclination asteroids are either Mars-crossers (probably in the process of being ejected from the solar system) or damocloids.

Retrograde
Name	Inclination	Discovery date	Comment
20461 Dioretsa	160.400°	June 8, 1999	This outer-planet crosser is a damocloid and centaur; 2000 HE46 may have split off from Dioretsa.
1999 LE31	151.867°	June 12, 1999	A damocloid, SDO, Jupiter- and Saturn-crosser asteroid.
2000 DG8	129.381°	February 25, 2000	A damocloid and SDO. Crosses all the outer planets except Neptune.
2000 HE46	158.459°	April 29, 2000	This outer-planet crosser is a damocloid and centaur. May be a fragment of 20461 Dioretsa.
2002 CE10	145.453°	February 6, 2002	Later reclassified as comet P/2002 CE10 (LINEAR 34).
(65407) 2002 RP120	119.112°	September 4, 2002	This outer-planet crosser is a damocloid and SDO.
2004 NN8	165.377°	July 13, 2004	This outer-planet crosser could even be on a path headed out of the Solar System (eccentricity ~0.9875).
2005 NP82	130.595°	July 6, 2005	Has encountered Jupiter repeatedly, notably in 1646, 1872, and 1978.
2005 SB223	91.419°	September 30, 2005
2005 TJ50	110.307°	October 5, 2005
2005 VD	172.827°	November 1, 2005	Halley-like orbit.
2006 BZ8	165.272°	January 23, 2006
2006 EX52	150.254°	March 5, 2006	Plutino.
2006 GZ2	168.331°	April 7, 2006	Later reclassified as comet C/2006 GZ2 (Spacewatch).
2006 LM1	172.109°	June 3, 2006
2006 RG1	133.315°	September 1, 2006
2006 RJ2	164.653°	September 14, 2006
2008 KV42	103.503°	May 31, 2008	Damocloid and Trans-Neptunian Centaur.
High-inclination
Name	Inclination	Discovery date	Comment
(5496) 1973 NA	67.999°	July 4, 1973	A Mars-crosser and Near-Earth object.
2001 AU43	72.132°	January 4, 2001	A Mars-crosser and Near-Earth object.
2002 XU93	77.904°	December 4, 2002	A damocloid and SDO. It is almost an Uranus outer-grazer.
2003 EH1	70.790°	March 6, 2003	A Mars-crosser, Near-Earth object and Jupiter inner-grazer.
2004 LG	70.725°	June 9, 2004	A Mercury- through Mars-crosser and Near-Earth object.

Landmark asteroids (cis-Jovian)

Name	Diameter (km)	Discovered	Comment
5 Astraea	117	December 8, 1845	First asteroid discovered 38 years after original four
87 Sylvia	261	May 16, 1866	First asteroid known to have more than one moon
90 Antiope	80×80	October 1, 1866	Double asteroid with two nearly equal components; its double nature was discovered using adaptive optics
92 Undina	126	1867 July 7	Created in one of the largest asteroid-on-asteroid collisions of the past 100 million years
139 Juewa	162	October 10, 1874	First asteroid discovered in China, by James Craig Watson. The name was chosen by Chinese officials: 瑞華, or in modern pinyin, ruìhuá
216 Kleopatra	217×94	April 10, 1880	Metallic asteroid with "dog-bone" shape
243 Ida	56×24×21	September 29, 1884	First confirmed binary asteroid
(243) Ida I Dactyl	1.4	February 17, 1994	Moon of 243 Ida, first confirmed satellite of an asteroid
279 Thule	127	October 25, 1888	Orbits in the Main belt's outermost edge in a 3:4 orbital resonance with Jupiter
288 Glauke	32	February 20, 1890	Exceptionally slow rotation period of about 1200 hours (2 months)
323 Brucia	36	December 22, 1891	First asteroid discovered by means of astrophotography rather than visual observation
433 Eros	13×13×33	August 13, 1898	First near-Earth asteroid discovered and the second largest; first asteroid to be detected by radar
490 Veritas	115	1902 September 3	Created in one of the largest asteroid-on-asteroid collisions of the past 100 million years
624 Hektor	370×195	February 10, 1907	Largest Jovian Trojan asteroid discovered
719 Albert	2.4	October 3, 1911	Last numbered asteroid to be lost then recovered
944 Hidalgo	38	October 31, 1920	Longest orbital period of any asteroid in the main asteroid belt
1125 China		October 30, 1957	First asteroid discovery to be credited to an institution rather than a person
1566 Icarus	1.4	June 27, 1949	Apollo class asteroid; perihelion is closer to the Sun than Mercury
2063 Bacchus	1.1×1.1×2.6	April 24, 1977
3200 Phaethon	5	October 11, 1983	First asteroid discovered from space; source of Geminids meteor shower.
3753 Cruithne	5	October 10, 1986	Unusual Earth-associated orbit
4179 Toutatis	4.5×2.4×1.9	January 4, 1989	Closely approached Earth on September 29, 2004
4769 Castalia	1.8×0.8	August 9, 1989	First asteroid to be radar imaged in sufficient detail for 3D modeling
5261 Eureka	~2–4	June 20, 1990	First Martian Trojan asteroid (L5 point) discovered (not yet officially recognized as such)
(11885) 1990 SS		September 25, 1990	First automated discovery of a Near-Earth Object (NEO)
(29075) 1950 DA	1.1	February 23, 1950	Will approach Earth very closely in 2880
99942 Apophis	0.3	June 19, 2004	First asteroid to rank greater than one on the Torino Scale (it was ranked at 2, then 4; now down to 0). Previously better known by its provisional designation 2004 MN4.
1997 XR2	0.23	1997	First asteroid to rank greater than zero on the impact-risk Torino Scale (it's ranked 1)
1998 KY26	0.030	June 2, 1998	Approached within 800,000 km of Earth
2002 AA29	0.1	January 9, 2002	Unusual Earth-associated orbit
2004 FH	0.030	2004	Discovered before it approached within 43,000 km of Earth on March 18, 2004.
2004 JG6	0.5–1	May 10, 2004	Six-month orbital period is the Solar System's second shortest (after Mercury
2008 TC3	~0.003	October 6, 2008	First Earth-impactor to be spotted before impact (on October 7, 2008)

Spacecraft targets

Name	Diameter (km)	Discovered	Spacecraft	Year(s)
1 Ceres	959×933	January 1, 1801	Target of the Dawn spacecraft
4 Vesta	468	March 29, 1807	Target of the Dawn spacecraft
21 Lutetia	120×100×80	November 15, 1852	Target of the Rosetta probe
140 Siwa	103	October 13, 1874	Abandoned target of the Rosetta probe
243 Ida	56×24×21	September 29, 1884	Visited by Galileo spacecraft - See also Dactyl (moon)
253 Mathilde	66×48×46	November 12, 1885	Visited by NEAR Shoemaker
433 Eros	13×13×33	August 13, 1898	First asteroid studied from orbit (NEAR Shoemaker, 2000-01)
951 Gaspra	18.2×10.5×8.9	July 30, 1916	First asteroid visited by spacecraft (Galileo)	1991
1620 Geographos	5.1×1.8	September 14, 1951	Was the target of Clementine spacecraft
2530 Shipka		July 9, 1978	Abandoned target of the Rosetta probe
2685 Masursky	15-20	May 3, 1981	Distant observations by the Cassini spacecraft
2703 Rodari		March 29, 1979	Abandoned target of the Rosetta probe
2867 Šteins	4.6	November 4, 1969	Visited by Rosetta probe
3352 McAuliffe	2-5	February 6, 1981	Abandoned target of the Deep Space 1 probe
3840 Mimistrobell		October 9, 1980	Abandoned target of the Rosetta probe
4660 Nereus	~1	February 28, 1982	Target of the cancelled NEAP probe and abandoned target of the Hayabusa mission
4979 Otawara	5.5	August 2, 1949	Abandoned target of the Rosetta probe
5535 Annefrank	4.0	March 23, 1942	Target of the Stardust probe
9969 Braille	2.2×0.6	May 27, 1992	Target of the Deep Space 1 probe
25143 Itokawa	~1	September 26, 1998	Target of the Hayabusa sample return mission
132524 APL	~2.5	June 13, 2006	Visited by New Horizons probe
(101955) 1999 RQ36	~0.5	September 11, 1999	Target of the proposed OSIRIS probe

Minor planets with the same or similar names as moons

Main article: Name conflicts of solar system objects

Name	Namesake	Moon of
9 Metis	Metis	Jupiter
17 Thetis	Tethys	Saturn
24 Themis	Themis	Saturn (spurious)
38 Leda	Leda	Jupiter
52 Europa	Europa	Jupiter
53 Kalypso	Calypso	Saturn
55 Pandora	Pandora	Saturn
74 Galatea	Galatea	Neptune
85 Io	Io	Jupiter
101 Helena	Helene	Saturn
106 Dione	Dione	Saturn
113 Amalthea	Amalthea	Jupiter
171 Ophelia	Ophelia	Uranus
204 Kallisto	Callisto	Jupiter
218 Bianca	Bianca	Uranus
239 Adrastea	Adrastea	Jupiter
302 Clarissa	Larissa	Neptune
548 Kressida	Cressida	Uranus
558 Carmen	Carme	Jupiter
577 Rhea	Rhea	Saturn
593 Titania	Titania	Uranus
666 Desdemona	Desdemona	Uranus
900 Rosalinde	Rosalind	Uranus
1036 Ganymed	Ganymede	Jupiter
1162 Larissa	Larissa	Neptune
1285 Julietta	Juliet	Uranus
1809 Prometheus	Prometheus	Saturn
1810 Epimetheus	Epimetheus	Saturn
2758 Cordelia	Cordelia	Uranus
2060 Chiron	Charon	Pluto
3908 Nyx	Nix	Pluto
4450 Pan	Pan	Saturn
9313 Protea	Proteus	Neptune
21290 Vydra	Hydra	Pluto

Numbered minor planets that are also comets

Name	Cometary name	Comment
2060 Chiron	95P/Chiron	Discovered in 1977 as the first Centaur, later found to display cometary behavior (including a coma)
4015 Wilson-Harrington	107P/Wilson-Harrington	In 1992, it was realized that asteroid 1979 VA's orbit matched it with the positions of the lost comet Wilson-Harrington (1949 III)
7968 Elst-Pizarro	133P/Elst-Pizarro	Discovered in 1996 as a comet, but orbitally matched to asteroid 1979 OW7
60558 Echeclus	174P/Echeclus	Second Centaur found to have a coma
118401 LINEAR	176P/LINEAR (LINEAR 52)	main-belt comet-asteroid discovered to have a coma on November 26, 2005

Note there are a quite a few other cases where a non-numbered asteroid with only a systematic designation (such as 2001 OG108) turned out to be a comet (in this case P/2001 OG108 (LONEOS 5)). The above table lists only numbered asteroids that are also comets.

Minor planets that were misnamed and renamed

In earlier times, before the modern numbering and naming rules were in effect, asteroids were sometimes given numbers and names before their orbits were precisely known. And in a few cases duplicate names were given to the same object (with modern use of computers to calculate and compare orbits with old recorded positions, this type of error no longer occurs). This led to a few cases where asteroids had to be renamed.

330 Adalberta	An object discovered March 18, 1892 by Max Wolf with provisional designation "1892 X" was named 330 Adalberta, but was lost and never recovered. In 1982 it was determined that the observations leading to the designation of 1892 X were stars, and the object never existed. The name and number 330 Adalberta was then reused for another asteroid discovered by Max Wolf on February 2, 1910, which had the provisional designation A910 CB.
525 Adelaide	The object A904 EB discovered March 14, 1904 by Max Wolf was named 525 Adelaide and was subsequently lost. Later, the object 1930 TA discovered October 3, 1930 by Sylvain Arend was named 1171 Rusthawelia. In those pre-computer days, it was not realized until 1958 that these were one and the same object. The name Rusthawelia was kept (and discovery credited to Arend); the name 525 Adelaide was reused for the object 1908 EKa discovered October 21, 1908 by Joel Hastings Metcalf.
715 Transvaalia and 933 Susi	The object 1911 LX discovered April 22, 1911 by H. E. Wood was named 715 Transvaalia. On April 23, 1920, the object 1920 GZ was discovered and named 933 Susi. In 1928 it was realized that these were one and the same object. The name Transvaalia was kept, and the name and number 933 Susi was reused for the object 1927 CH discovered February 10, 1927 by Karl Reinmuth.
864 Aase and 1078 Mentha	The object A917 CB discovered February 13, 1917 by Max Wolf was named 864 Aase, and the object 1926 XB discovered December 7, 1926 by Karl Reinmuth was named 1078 Mentha. In 1958 it was discovered that these were one and the same object. In 1974, this was resolved by keeping the name 1078 Mentha and reusing the name and number 864 Aase for the object 1921 KE, discovered September 30, 1921 by Karl Reinmuth.
1095 Tulipa and 1449 Virtanen	The object 1928 DC discovered February 24, 1928 by Karl Reinmuth was named 1095 Tulipa, and the object 1938 DO discovered February 20, 1938 by Yrjö Väisälä was named 1449 Virtanen. In 1966 it was discovered that these were one and the same object. The name 1449 Virtanen was kept and the name and number 1095 Tulipa was reused for the object 1926 GS discovered April 14, 1926 by Karl Reinmuth.
1125 China and 3789 Zhongguo	The object 1928 UF discovered October 25, 1928 by Zhang Yuzhe (Y. C. Chang) was named 1125 China, and was later lost. Later, the object 1957 UN1 was discovered on October 30, 1957 at Purple Mountain Observatory and was initially incorrectly believed to be the rediscovery of the object 1928 UF. The name and number 1125 China were then reused for the object 1957 UN1, and 1928 UF remained lost. In 1986, the object 1986 QK1 was discovered and proved to be the real rediscovery of 1928 UF. This object was given the new number and name 3789 Zhongguo. Note Zhongguo is the Mandarin Chinese word for "China", in pinyin transliteration.
Asteroid 1317	The object 1914 UQ discovered April 20, 1914 by G. N. Neujmin was named 787 Moskva (and retains that name to this day). The object 1934 FD discovered on March 19, 1934 by C. Jackson was given the sequence number 1317. In 1938, G. N. Neujmin found that asteroid 1317 and 787 Moskva were one and the same object. The sequence number 1317 was later reused for the object 1935 RC discovered on September 1, 1935 by Karl Reinmuth; that object is now known as 1317 Silvretta.

Record-setting close approaches to Earth

Only asteroids or meteoroids that break a previous record are included. Note that near-earth object detection technology drastically improved around the turn of the 21st century, so objects being detected as of 2004 would have been missed only a decade earlier. By some definitions, an asteroid must be at least 50 meters in diameter, accordingly the table lists objects smaller than this size separately. The distances shown are approximate and from the surface of the Earth: sea-level is shown at 0 kilometres.

Distance (AU)	Distance 1,000s of km	Size (m) (approximate)	Date of closest approach	Object
0.000043	0	Sea level
Objects below 50 m size (Meteoroids)
0.000043	0.053	3-10	1972 August 10	1972 Earth grazer
0.000043	0.1 circa	1 circa	between 1990 October 13 and 2007-08-07	three other Earth-grazing fireballs
0.000086	7	6	2004 March 31	2004 FU162
0.00033	43	30	2004 March 18	2004 FH
0.00056	78	5	2003 September 27	2003 SQ222 (Apollo)
0.00072	102	15	1994 December 9	1994 XM1
0.00099	142	5	1993 May 20	1993 KA2
0.00114	165	10	1991 January 18	1991 BA
0.00257	378	average distance to the Moon
Objects above 50 m size (Asteroids)
0.000043	0	10,000	65 Ma ago	unknown (Chicxulub crater)
0.00289	426	500	2006 July 3	2004 XP14
0.00457	678	300	1989 March 22	4581 Asclepius
0.00495	735	300 & 300	1937 October 30	69230 Hermes

See also: Closest Approaches to the Earth by Minor Planets

Exceptionally slow-rotating objects

Rotation periods have been determined for only a small fraction of asteroids (from light curves or from radar studies). Most asteroids have rotation periods of less than 24 hours; however, 288 Glauke has a rotation period of about 50 days.

Name	Rotation period (hours)
288 Glauke	1200
1220 Crocus	737
253 Mathilde	417.7
1998 QR52	234
3691 Bede	226.8
9969 Braille	226.4
(38071) 1999 GU3	216
(65407) 2002 RP120	200

See also: Minor Planet Lightcurve Parameters

See also

• List of solar system objects by mass
• List of numbered Aten asteroids
• List of asteroids named after people
• List of asteroids named after places
• List of Apollo asteroids
• List of Amor asteroids
• List of Centaurs
• List of scattered-disk objects
• List of asteroids with moons
• List of Mercury-crossing asteroids
• List of Venus-crossing asteroids
• List of Earth-crossing asteroids
• List of Mars-crossing asteroids
• List of Jupiter-crossing asteroids
• List of Saturn-crossing asteroids
• List of Uranus-crossing asteroids
• List of Neptune-crossing asteroids

External links

• Lists and plots: Minor Planets
• PDS Asteroid Data Archive
• SBN Small Bodies Data Archive
• NASA Near Earth Object Program
• Major News About Minor Objects

Books

Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, 5th ed.: Prepared on Behalf of Commission 20 Under the Auspices of the International Astronomical Union, Lutz D. Schmadel, ISBN 3-540-00238-3