An asteroid is an extra terrestrial body made of rock or metal… or both.

They come in all sizes. Some are as small as a potato; others are like mini planets, as big as a whole country.

Most of them orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter and form a ring called the “asteroid belt”.

Where do they come from?

The solar system was formed out of a swirl of gas, dust and ice particles.

These tiny particles joined together bit by bit to form bigger and bigger rocks, until they became planets.

Rocks that didn’t manage to stick together are called asteroids, which means “starlike”.

We know there are thousands of them. The brightest, Vesta, is sometimes visible with the naked eye. To see others, you need a telescope.