Why are Asteroids important? (Pixabay)

Considering that asteroids are the focus of so much attention not just of all the space agencies, but also of the public at large, it should be important to answer one question: Why are asteroids important? (Pixabay)

The answer? Well, asteroids have not changed much in billions of years. They can tell us a lot about what the early solar system was like billions of years ago when planets, moons and other space objects we take for granted in our skies today were actually forming. (Pixabay)

Studying asteroids closely will help scientists understand the conditions and processes that went into making our solar system what it is today. And, considering an asteroid killed off all the dinosaurs, we need to know if any asteroid will crash into Earth. (Pixabay)

NASA's Dawn mission studied two most massive asteroids up close. It orbited Vesta for 13 months, and then went on to Orbit Ceres. (Pixabay)

Part of NASA's Discovery Program, Dawn is a mission to the two most massive bodies in the main asteroid belt – Vesta and Ceres. These diverse worlds offer scientific snapshots of the early solar system. (Pixabay)

Another asteroid mission NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid  Rendezvous) Shoemaker orbited asteroid Eros for about one year and then landed on its surface. It sent back amazing images and lots of other data about the asteroids. (Pixabay)

NASA's NEAR was the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid and also was the first to land on one. NEAR was not designed as a lander, but survived touchdown on the asteroid and returned valuable data. (Pixabay)

NASA renamed the spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker in honor of renowned geologist Eugene M. Shoemaker (1928–1997) (Pixabay)

NASA was and is running a number of asteroid missions including Lucy - Flyby Mission to Multiple Trojan Asteroids, Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), LICIACube - Imaging Cubesat launched with DART, OSIRIS-REx - Sample Return Mission to Asteroid Bennu, Hayabusa2 - JAXA Sample Return Mission to Asteroid Ryugu and more. (Pixabay)