With asteroids represented as blue points, and comets as white points, our database is updated daily to give you approximately 40,000 neos (and counting). Asteroid, 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 Hundreds of thousands of asteroids are known. Understand what asteroids are, how the asteroid belt works, and why these rocky solar system objects help us learn about our planetary origins. When an asteroid threatens earth, astronomers use a rating called the torino scale to communicate the risk Using nasa definitions, an asteroid is a relatively small, inactive, rocky body orbiting the sun, while a comet is a relatively small, at times active, object whose ices can vaporize in.
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