Asteroid Belts (Illustration)
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NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
The main asteroid belt lies between Mars and Jupiter, and Trojan asteroids both lead and follow Jupiter. Scientists now know that asteroids were the original “building blocks” of the inner planets. Those that remain are airless rocks that failed to adhere to one another to become larger bodies as the solar system was forming 4.6 billion years ago.
Credits
Image
NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)