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asteroids

Asteroids are space rocks that have existed since the formation of the planets over 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists believe that asteroids are pieces of rock that were never swept up into planets. Like the planets, asteroids are kept in orbit by the gravity of the Sun. Most of the asteroids in the solar system lie in the Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Stats

Stumper

The largest asteroid ever discovered measured:

over 300 feet in length

over 3,000 feet in length

over 3,000,000 feet in length

Correct!

Ceres is the largest and first asteroid ever found. In 1801, astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered this gigantic asteroid that resembled a small planet.

Stumper

"Asteroid" is a Greek word that means:

"starlike"

"rocklike"

"peanutlike"

Correct!

When looking at an asteroid through a telescope, it actually resembles a faint star. The difference is that it moves against the background stars from night to night as it follows its orbit around the Sun.

Fact or Fiction

Astronomers are not very interested in studying asteroids.

Fact

Fiction

In 1996, NASA sent the NEAR Shoemaker (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) probe to study the surface of Eros, a 21-mile-long asteroid.

Quote

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Nearly every shooting star you see at night is a very small piece of an asteroid (the size of a grain of sand) broken off in a collision.

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