List of exceptional asteroids

The following is a collection of lists of asteroids of the Solar System that are exceptional in some way, such as their size or orbit. For the purposes of this article, "asteroid" refers to minor planets out to the orbit of Neptune, and includes the dwarf planet Ceres, the Jupiter trojans and the centaurs, but not trans-Neptunian objects. For a complete list of minor planets in numerical order, see List of minor planets.
Asteroids are given minor planet numbers, but not all minor planets are asteroids. Minor planet numbers are also given to objects of the Kuiper belt, which is similar to the asteroid belt but farther out. Asteroids are mostly between 2–3 AU from the Sun or at the orbit of Jupiter, 5 AU from the Sun. Comets are not typically included under minor planet numbers, and have their own naming conventions.
Asteroids are given a unique sequential identifying number once their orbit is precisely determined. Prior to this, they are known only by their systematic name or provisional designation, such as.

Physical characteristics

Largest by diameter

Estimating the sizes of asteroids from observations is difficult due to their irregular shapes, varying albedo, and small angular diameter. Observations by the Very Large Telescope of most large asteroids were published 2019–2021.
The number of bodies grows rapidly as the size decreases. Based on IRAS data there are about 140 main-belt asteroids with a diameter greater than 120 km, which is approximately the transition point between surviving primordial asteroids and fragments thereof. For a more complete list, see List of Solar System objects by size.
The inner asteroid belt has few large asteroids. Of those in the above list, only 4 Vesta, 19 Fortuna, 6 Hebe, 7 Iris and 9 Metis orbit there.

Most massive

Below are the sixteen most-massive measured asteroids. Ceres, at a third the estimated mass of the asteroid belt, is half again as massive as the next fifteen put together. The masses of asteroids are estimated from perturbations they induce on the orbits of other asteroids, except for asteroids that have been visited by spacecraft or have an observable moon, where a direct mass calculation is possible. Different sets of astrometric observations lead to different mass determinations; the biggest problem is accounting for the aggregate perturbations caused by all of the smaller asteroids.

Name	Mass	Precision	Approx. proportion of all asteroids
1 Ceres	938.35	0.001%	39.2%
4 Vesta	259.076	0.0004%	10.8%
2 Pallas	204	1.5%	8.5%
10 Hygiea	87	8%	3.6%
704 Interamnia	35	14%	1.5%
15 Eunomia	30	6%	1.3%
3 Juno	27	9%	1.1%
511 Davida	27	27%	1.1%
52 Europa	24	16%	1.0%
16 Psyche	23	13%	1.0%
532 Herculina	≈ 23	?	≈ 1%
31 Euphrosyne	17	18%	0.7%
65 Cybele	15	12%	0.6%
87 Sylvia	14.76	0.4%	0.6%
7 Iris	14	17%	0.6%
29 Amphitrite	13	16%	0.5%
6 Hebe	12	20%	0.5%
88 Thisbe	12	20%	0.5%
107 Camilla	11.2	1%	0.5%
324 Bamberga	10	9%	0.4%
Total	1781	NA	75%

The proportions assume that the total mass of the asteroid belt is, or .
Outside the top four, the ranking of all the asteroids is uncertain, as there is a great deal of overlap among the estimates.
The largest asteroids with an accurately measured mass, because they have been studied by the probe Dawn, are 1 Ceres with a mass of, and 4 Vesta at. The third-largest asteroid with an accurately measured mass, because it has moons, is 87 Sylvia at. Other large asteroids with masses measured from their moons are 107 Camilla and 130 Elektra.
For a more complete list, see List of Solar System objects by size. Other large asteroids such as 423 Diotima currently only have estimated masses.

Brightest from Earth

Only Vesta is regularly bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Under ideal viewing conditions with very dark skies, a keen eye might be able to also see Ceres, as well as Pallas and Iris at their rare perihelic oppositions. The following asteroids can all reach an apparent magnitude brighter than or equal to the +8.3 attained by Saturn's moon Titan at its brightest, which was discovered 145 years before the first asteroid was found owing to its closeness to the easily observed Saturn.
None of the asteroids in the outer part of the asteroid belt can ever attain this brightness. Even Hygiea and Interamnia rarely reach magnitudes of above 10.0. This is due to the different distributions of spectral types within different sections of the asteroid belt: the highest-albedo asteroids are all concentrated closer to the orbit of Mars, and much lower albedo C and D types are common in the outer belt.
Those asteroids with very high eccentricities will only reach their maximum magnitude rarely, when their perihelion is very close to a heliocentric conjunction with Earth, or when the asteroid passes very close to Earth.

Asteroid	Magnitude when brightest	Semi- major axis	Eccentricity of orbit	Diameter	Year of discovery
99942 Apophis	3.4^*	0.922	0.191	0.32	2004
4 Vesta	5.20	2.361	0.089172	529	1807
2 Pallas	6.49	2.773	0.230725	544	1802
1 Ceres	6.65	2.766	0.079905	952	1801
7 Iris	6.73	2.385	0.231422	200	1847
433 Eros	6.8	1.458	0.222725	34 × 11 × 11	1898
	6.85	1.711	0.467207	0.93	2001
367943 Duende	7.04	0.910	0.089319	0.04 × 0.02	2012
6 Hebe	7.5	2.425	0.201726	186	1847
3 Juno	7.5	2.668	0.258194	233	1804
18 Melpomene	7.5	2.296	0.218708	141	1852
	7.74	1.448	0.639770	0.5	1998
15 Eunomia	7.9	2.643	0.187181	268	1851
8 Flora	7.9	2.202	0.156207	128	1847
324 Bamberga	8.0	2.682	0.338252	229	1892
1036 Ganymed	8.1	2.6657	0.533710	32	1924
9 Metis	8.1	2.387	0.121441	190	1848
192 Nausikaa	8.2	2.404	0.246216	103	1879
20 Massalia	8.3	2.409	0.142880	145	1852

* Apophis will only achieve that brightness on April 13, 2029. It typically has an apparent magnitude of 20–22.

Slowest rotators

This list contains the slowest-rotating known minor planets with a period of at least 1000 hours, or 41 days, while most bodies have rotation periods between 2 and 20 hours. Also see Potentially slow rotators for minor planets with an insufficiently accurate period.

#	Minor planet designation	Rotation period	Δmag	Quality	Orbit or family	Spectral type	Diameter	Abs. mag	Refs
1.		1880	0.6	2	NEO	S	0.782	17.9
2.	846 Lipperta	1641	0.30	2	Themis	CBU:	52.41	10.26
3.	2440 Educatio	1561	0.80	2	Flora	S	6.51	13.1
4.	912 Maritima	1332	0.18	3−	MBA	C	82.14	9.30
5.	9165 Raup	1320	1.34	3−	Hungaria	S	4.62	13.60
6.	1235 Schorria	1265	1.40	3	Hungaria	CX:	5.04	13.10
7.	50719 Elizabethgriffin	1256	0.42	2	Eunomia	S	3.40	14.65
8.		1234.2	0.69	2	Vestian	S	2.96	15.01
9.	288 Glauke	1170	0.90	3	MBA	S	32.24	10.00
10.		1167.4	0.80	2	MBA	C	5.34	15.09
11.	496 Gryphia	1072	1.25	3	Flora	S	15.47	11.61
12.	4524 Barklajdetolli	1069	1.26	2	Flora	S	7.14	12.90
13.	2675 Tolkien	1060	0.75	2+	Flora	S	9.85	12.20
14.		1007.7	0.86	2	MBA	S	1.54	16.43