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◊Solar System Formation
A Star is Born
How Planets Form
◊Giant Planets
What Are They, and Where Are They?
Atmospheres
Interiors
Magnetospheres
◊Moons
What's the Deal With Moons?
The Galilean Moons of Jupiter
Moons of Saturn, Uranus, & Neptune
◊Rings
◊Kuiper Belt
Objects
Dwarf Planets
Comets
◊Space Junk
Asteroids
Meteorites
Dust and Plasma
◊Extrasolar
Planets
◊Missions
Pioneer 10 & 11
Voyager 1 & 2
Galileo
Cassini
New Frontiers
◊Lessons and Activities
Asteroids
Asteroids are small, rocky bodies that orbit the Sun much like planets, but are much smaller than planets. In fact, while comets are the size of a typical city, asteroids are about the size of a typical US state. Most asteroids are found in the asteroid belt.
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Sections:
General Characteristics of Asteroids
Measuring Asteroid Properties
Origin and Evolution of Asteroids
Missions to Asteroids
Related links
Meteorites
Primitive meteorites are remnants of the solar nebula, containing intermixed rock and metal flakes. Processed meteorites are fragments of larger asteroids and therefore can be metallic like a planet's core or rocky like its mantle or crust.
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Sections:
Identifying Meteoites
Primitive Meteorites
Processed Meteorites
Dust and Plasma
The dust in our solar system is created by collisions between comets, asteroids, and meteorites. Plasma is an ionized gas that serves many different purposes on Earth, as well as in the interplanetary medium.
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Sections:
Interplanetary Dust
How is it distributed?
Why do we care about dust?
What's the dust made of?
Missions mapping dust
Plasma
Plasma in the interplanetary medium