Asteroid 243 Ida and its small moon Dactyl. This color image was created from images taken by the Galileo spacecraft about 14 minutes before its closest approach on August 28, 1993.

Welcome to Ida, a medium-sized asteroid about 40 miles (60 km) across. Gravity is so weak on Ida that you could easily jump as high as the Washington Monument. And the landing would be as gentle as the launch.

 —one of the storyboards for asteroids and comets from the Voyage Scale Model Solar System Exhibition, ©2001

Credit: NASA