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What’s an
asteroid
? It's a rocky object that’s larger than a
meteoroid but smaller than a planet. Sometimes asteroids crash
and break into meteoroids.
Many asteroids are about one mile (two kilometers) across.
But the largest one is 605 miles (974 kilometers) wide. That’s
about the distance from Boston, Massachusetts, to Raleigh,
North Carolina. Wow, that's big!
At least 2 million asteroids orbit in an area between Mars
and Jupiter. It is called the
asteroid belt
. Many other asteroids
share an orbit with Jupiter or Mars.
About seven thousand asteroids come close to Earth’s orbit.
Worried that one of them might hit our planet? Don’t be.
Scientists are keeping a close eye on all the near-Earth asteroids.
Watch Out for
Asteroids!
