• Question: Which is the largest asteriod in our solar system? How big is it?

    Asked by kaitlyno to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      The largest asteroid used to Ceres – it’s in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter but technically is now called a ‘dwarf planet’ like Pluto. After this it’s probably Pallas, which is 338 miles wide 😀 If an asteroid hit the Earth that was bigger than a few hundred metres, it would cause us serious damage indeed.

    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 15 Nov 2014:

      Ceres used to be a planet back about 150 years ago, then it was demoted to an asteroid, and now its a dwarf planet. I wonder what it will be called next!

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