Asteroids come in all shapes and sizes; some are large enough to earn the title of dwarf planet, while others are about ostrich-sized. These wandering rocks are incredibly important objects for scientists seeking information about the formation of the solar system and even life on Earth. Some meteorites (the space rocks that fall to Earth) contain amino acids, and plenty of asteroids contain evidence that they once carried water. The history of life on Earth could be chalked up to a couple lucky fallen rocks, in theory.
We’ve visited only a few asteroids to date, but NASA is working on changing that. The recently launched Lucy spacecraft is set to explore Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, a mission that will bring us a whole new understanding of these strange objects. But until Lucy gets to its first targets, we’ll have to keep ourselves busy with the space rocks we’ve already seen up close.
