An asteroid is a minor planet that orbits within the inner solar system. It is a small object in the Solar System that travels around the Sun. It is like a planet but smaller. They range from very small (smaller than a car) to 600 miles (1000 km) across. A few asteroids have an asteroid moon.
The name "asteroid" means "like a star" in the ancient Greek language. Asteroids may look like small stars in the sky, but they really do move around the Sun. Like planets, asteroids do not make their own light. Because of this, some people think "asteroids" is not a good name, and think that the name "planetoid" ("like a planet") would be a better name.
Asteroids are the leftover rock and other material from the formation of the Solar System. These rocks were too small to come together to make a planet. Some are made of carbon or metal. Depending on what's on the surface, they are classified into various asteroid spectral types including Type M (metal), Type S (stone), and Type C (carbon).
Giuseppe Piazzi found the first asteroid, in 1801. He called it Ceres, and it is the biggest object in the asteroid belt. Others, like Juno, Pallas, and Vesta were found later. In the 1850s, so many had been found that they were numbered by a Minor planet designation starting with 1 Ceres. Today, astronomers using computerized telescopes find thousands of asteroids every month. Asteroid impact prediction is one of their purposes.
- setting this to "bottom-right" will display a (rather large) icon linking to the graphic, if desired
Notes:
Details on the new coding for clickable images is here: [1]
The smaller planets have a bit of an overlap just to ensure they're locatable, especially in the belts.
While it may look strange, it's important to keep the codes for a particular system in order. The clickable coding treats the first object created in an area as the one on top.
- I've placed moons on "top" so that their smaller circles won't disappear "under" their respective planets or dwarf planets.
The "poly" code would be more appropriate for the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. However, there appears to be a bug with that aspect of the code.
- I've compensated by using oversized circles for those moon groups, and tucking them UNDER their planets for now.
The Sun is a rectangle as that approximates the edge closely enough for the purposes of this template.
I've guessed as to the boundaries for the KB, SD, and OC - if they need adjustment, load the image into Paint and use the pencil tool to find the appropriate coordinates.
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