Richard "Rick" P. Binzel (born 1958) is an American astronomer and professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He is a discoverer of minor planets, photometrist and the inventor of the Torino Scale, a method for categorizing the impact hazard associated with near-Earth objects such as asteroids and comets.

However, Richard Binzel has strong feelings contrary to this collective decision and would prefer for Pluto to still be classified as having full planet status.

Binzel is an editor of the books Seventy-five years of Hirayama asteroid families : the role of collisions in the Solar System history ISBN 0-937707-82-1 and Asteroids II ISBN 0-8165-1123-3.

The main-belt asteroid 2873 Binzel, discovered by Edward Bowell at Anderson Mesa Station, was named in his honor.