Shooting stars are not stars at all page 14 and other facts about meteors Scientists landed a spacecraft on a comet page 16 and other facts about the Rosetta Mission Humans are leaving junk in space page 18 and other facts about space junk Most meteorites are smaller than an orange page 20 and other facts about meteorites
We have sent out messages for aliens page 22 and other facts about Voyager 1 and the Golden Record Toys are flying through space right now page 24 and other facts about the Juno Mission Even More Facts page 26 Glossary page 28 Further Information page 31 Index page 32
struggling to fly through areas with lots FACT FLYING THROUGH THE 1 ASTEROID BELT IS EASY ovies and TV shows often show spacecraft of asteroids dodging between huge speeding rocks The reality is much less exciting Asteroid belt Saturn Asteroids are rocky objects leftover bits and pieces from when the solar system formed billions of years ago that still circle around the sun In our solar system between the planets Mars and Jupiter there is an area of space containing millions of asteroids This is known as the asteroid belt and most of the asteroids in our solar system are found within it Jupiter Asteroid belt Mars Earth What I was expecting a challenge Venus
Space between Although there are lots of asteroids to avoid there is typically around 620,000 to 1.8 million miles 1 to 2.9 million km between each one It's difficult to even get close enough to an asteroid to see it as you're flying through the belt let alone having to constantly dodge around them You really have to aim at a particular asteroid in order to be sure of seeing one This is a disappointingly boring flight Not all alike The largest known asteroid Vesta is 359 miles 578 km wide although most are much smaller than this Asteroids are made of rock and metal and the different types and amounts of the materials that make them up change how they look For example asteroids that contain lots of metal are shiny Beyond the belt Although most of the asteroids in our solar system are found in the asteroid belt there are some in other areas too For instance Trojans are what we call asteroids that circle around Jupiter A number of asteroids pass close to Earth and are known la bit unimaginatively as Near Earth Asteroids The ones that might be dangerous for Earth are the Earth crossers asteroids that actually cross Earth's path and thus could crash into us
