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Asteroid

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

A detailed image of asteroid Bennu captured by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during its mission to study the asteroid.

What Are Asteroids?

Asteroids are tiny worlds that orbit the Sun. They are not planets, and they are bigger than little rocks called meteoroids. Some asteroids are made of rock, while others are made of metal or even ice. The biggest asteroid, Ceres, is so large that it is called a dwarf planet.

Where Do Asteroids Live?

Most asteroids live in a place called the asteroid belt. This belt is a big circle of space between the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is mostly empty, with lots of space between each asteroid. Astronomers have been studying these space rocks for over 200 years!

Fun Facts About Asteroids

  • Scientists use big telescopes and space cameras like the Hubble Space Telescope to learn about asteroids.
  • Space missions from groups like NASA and JAXA have visited asteroids such as Itokawa, Ryugu, and Bennu. These missions have taken pictures and even brought samples back to Earth.
  • Asteroids come in many shapes and sizes. Most are lumpy, but the bigger ones are more round.

Why Do People Study Asteroids?

People study asteroids to learn about our solar system. These space rocks are like leftover pieces from when the planets were built. By studying them, scientists can learn about the early days of our solar system and maybe even how Earth got its water!

Images

An illustration showing some of the largest objects in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, including the giant asteroids Ceres and Vesta.
A detailed space image of asteroid Eros captured by the NEAR spacecraft, showing its surface features and craters from a unique orbital perspective.
An image of asteroid 243 Ida and its tiny moon Dactyl taken by the Galileo spacecraft from space in 1993.
A colorful image of Ceres, a dwarf planet, showing bright craters like Haulani and Oxo on its surface.
A visual guide showing how big different asteroids are compared to each other.
A comparison of the sizes of the asteroid Vesta, the dwarf planet Ceres, and Earth's Moon to help understand their relative dimensions in space.
Radar image of asteroid 2013 ET showing its shape and surface features.
A diagram showing the location of asteroid groups in our solar system.
A comparison of the sizes of three asteroids in our solar system: Ceres, Vesta, and Eros.
A view of the cratered surface of the asteroid Vesta, showing hills and ridges as captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft.
Portrait of Giuseppe Piazzi, the Italian astronomer who discovered Ceres.
A diagram showing the planets and asteroids in our solar system's inner circle, with distances from the Sun shown to scale.

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Asteroid, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Images from Wikimedia Commons. Tap any image to view credits and license.