How the number of known asteroids surged between 1980 and 2011

Space · Published 9 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: This video visualizes the rapid expansion of our catalog of known asteroids over three decades, tracking the dramatic increase in discoveries made by astronomers.

The footage provides a high-resolution visual representation of asteroid discovery trends from 1980 through May 2011. It illustrates the scale of astronomical observation and the growing census of objects within our solar system during this period.

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