Asteroid Timeline of Events

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Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

Timeline of Events

1802

3.28.1802

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man.

1804

9.1.1804

Juno, one of the largest main belt asteroids, is discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding.

1851

7.29.1851

Annibale de Gasparis discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.

1990

6.20.1990

Asteroid Eureka is discovered.

1991

10.29.1991

The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.

1998

10.24.1998

Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission

2001

2.12.2001

NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

2004

9.29.2004

The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth.