Don’t let the name fool you. Our solar system’s small bodies – asteroids, comets, and meteors – pack big surprises. These chunks of rock, ice, and metal are leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. They are a lot like a fossil record of our early solar system. There are currently 1,113,527 known asteroids and 3,743 known comets.
Explore the Billions of small space rocks never evolved into planets. Amazingly, many of these mysterious worlds have been altered very little in the 4.6 billion years since they first formed. Their relatively pristine state makes comets, asteroids, and some meteors wonderful storytellers with much to share about conditions in the early solar system. They can reveal secrets about our origins, chronicling the processes and events that led to the birth of our world.
