Asteroids in fiction
After Ceres, Asteroid 433 Eros is perhaps the most-commonly mentioned asteroid, probably because it is one of the largest near-Earth asteroids.
Near-Earth object
Two of the biggest Near-Earth objects 433 Eros and 1036 Ganymed, were also some the earliest to be detected. 1036 Ganymed is about 20 miles in diameter. As bigger asteroids they reflected more light. One way around simply finding the NEOs that reflect the most visible light, is to use infrared telescopes that observe the objects heat emissions.