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Loading contentEarth-crossing NEOs with a semi-major axis larger than Earth's (a > 1 AU) and perihelion inside Earth's aphelion (q < 1.017 AU).
The largest class of near-Earth asteroids — Earth-crossers with orbits mostly larger than Earth's, named after 1862 Apollo.
8 modelled members.
One of the most elongated known asteroids, a near-Earth Apollo object well characterised by radar.
An elongated near-Earth asteroid in a chaotic, tumbling rotation, flown past by China's Chang'e 2 in 2012; it crosses both Earth's and Mars's orbits.
A small near-Earth Apollo asteroid on which the Yarkovsky effect — the tiny orbital push from re-radiated sunlight — was first directly measured by radar.
A small stony near-Earth 'rubble-pile' asteroid, the first body from which samples were returned to Earth, by Japan's Hayabusa in 2010.
A near-Earth binary asteroid whose small moon, Dimorphos, was struck by NASA's DART in 2022 — humanity's first test of asteroid deflection.
A small, carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid sampled by OSIRIS-REx, whose material was returned to Earth in 2023.
A carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid visited by Japan's Hayabusa2, which returned surface and subsurface samples to Earth in 2020.
The small moon of the near-Earth asteroid Didymos and the impact target of NASA's DART mission — the first object whose orbit humans deliberately changed. ESA's Hera will survey the aftermath.
Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
Orbital data, ephemerides, and small-body parameters for planets, asteroids, and comets.