5 amazing NASA asteroid facts you won’t believe are true

Most asteroids orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt, ranging from Vesta (largest asteroid) 530km wide to bodies less than 10 meters

Image Credit: NASA 

NASA's Psyche spacecraft, launched on October 13, 2023, aims to explore the metal-rich asteroid Psyche

Image Credit: NASA 

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), mostly asteroids (99%), have orbits that bring them within 1.3 times Earth's distance from the Sun

Image Credit: NASA 

A potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) that have a chance to hit the Earth is within 75 lakh kms of Earth’s orbit and a diameter of 460 feet or larger

Image Credit: NASA 

Large asteroids have struck Earth, creating craters like Arizona’s Barringer Crater, about 0.75 miles wide and 600 feet deep, formed 50,000 years ago by a 100 to 170 feet asteroid

Image Credit: NASA/Amanda Barnett