NASA has now catalogued 42,616 near-Earth asteroids, according to the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies. The count was updated on October 5, 2026.

Of these, 879 are larger than one kilometre — and about 95 percent of those giants have been found. But only 11,712 asteroids bigger than 140 metres are known, less than half the estimated total.

About 2,540 are classed as potentially hazardous, meaning their orbits bring them worryingly close to Earth.

Planetary defence took a big step in 2022, when NASA’s DART mission slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos and shortened its orbit by 32 minutes. The European Space Agency’s Hera mission is now en route to study the aftermath.

NASA’s NEO Surveyor telescope, built to find the remaining large asteroids, is due to launch in the coming years.

Most near-Earth asteroids pose no threat, burning up or missing us entirely. But scientists take the hazard seriously after the 2013 Chelyabinsk airburst injured over a thousand people in Russia.

Finding asteroids is only half the job. Missions like DART proved we can nudge one off course — if we spot it early enough.