What is an asteroid?

Asteroids are chunks of rock that orbit the sun and wander around the solar system. They’re the rubble left over from the solar system’s formation roughly 4.6 billion years ago. An asteroid is made of the same stuff under your feet – rock, bits of metal, maybe some carbon.

There are lots of asteroids in our solar system. Most of them live in the main asteroid belt—a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids hang out in other places, too. For example, some asteroids are found in the orbital path of planets. This means that the asteroid and the planet follow the same path around the sun. 

 

Picture Credit : Google