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asteroid
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Also known as: minor planet, planetoid
asteroid distribution between Mars and Jupiter
Recent News
May 29, 2023, 3:56 PM ET (AP)
UAE announces groundbreaking mission to asteroid belt, seeking clues to life's origins
The United Arab Emirates has unveiled plans to send a spaceship to explore the galaxy’s main asteroid belt, the latest space project by the oil-rich nation after it launched the successful Hope spacecraft to Mars in 2020
asteroid, also called minor planet or planetoid, any of a host of small bodies, about 1,000 km (600 miles) or less in diameter, that orbit the Sun primarily between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in a nearly flat ring called the asteroid belt. It is because of their small size and large numbers relative to the major planets that asteroids are also called minor planets. The two designations have been used interchangeably, though the term asteroid is more widely recognized by the general public. Among scientists, those who study individual objects with dynamically interesting orbits or groups of objects ...(100 of 10579 words)