In 1991 the Galileo spacecraft photographed the asteroid, Gaspra. This picture shows the asteroid in false color. Gaspra circles the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
Click on image for full size
NASA/JPL

Japan And U.S. Join Together for Asteroid Expedition
News story originally written on June 20, 1997

NASA is going to send a spacecraft to visit an asteroid. Two countries will work on the space mission - Japan and the United States.

The name of the asteroid is Nereus. Nereus is a small asteroid. It is rocky and potato-shaped.

The name of the spacecraft is MUSES. The MUSES spacecraft has a very small robot on it. This robot will land on the asteroid. It will do experiments and collect rocks from the asteroid.

The scientists can learn a lot from these rocks. The scientists hope to find out more information about our solar system.

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