A NASA probe recently collided with the Comet Tempel 1.
Here some of the first images of Itokawa taken on Sept. 10 from about 19 miles away. Itokawa, named after a Japanese scientist, is an Apollo and Mars-crosser asteroid because it crosses the orbits of both Earth and Mars.
This artist's rendition of the Hayabusa craft shows it orbiting the asteroid. The craft was launched on May 9, 2003, and reached within about 12 miles of the 2,000-foot-long asteroid on Sept. 12, 2005.