What are Asteroids?

Asteroids are rocky objects orbiting the Sun, remnants from the early solar system. Today, we’re exploring some of the largest rocky objects in our solar system. I’ll also talk about the asteroid belt and how asteroids sometimes come much closer to Earth than we’d like. We’ll dive into NASA’s DART mission, which tested how we could redirect a dangerous asteroid, and I’ll explain how missions like OSIRIS-REx are helping us study asteroids up close. Asteroids actually hit the Earth more often than you might think! Plus, did you know asteroids could one day be mined for valuable resources? From understanding the risk of asteroid impacts to uncovering the potential for asteroid mining, this video gives you an overview of these strange space rocks. If you’ve ever wondered about the role of asteroids in the solar system—or what would happen if one hit Earth—this video is for you.

00:00 - What’s an asteroid and how big are they?
00:45 - What’s the asteroid belt?
01:04 - Mars’ asteroid moons
01:28 - Are asteroids dangerous?
01:58 - Apophis: The most dangerous asteroid
02:38 - Redirecting dangerous asteroids (DART)
03:29 - Arrokoth / New Horizons
04:06 - Bennu / Ossiris-Rex
04:28 - Asteroid mining
05:31 - Like exploring space?

[CATDRL]

You may want to create a follow-up video on 2024 PT5, which was discovered yesterday. It will become a near-earth mini-moon for a couple of months.