Planets orbits are shown by broken lines, asteroid orbits by solid lines. Most of the asteroid orbits lie between Mars and Jupiter. Icarus moves closest to the sun; Hidalgo fartherest from it. Most of the asteroids appear to move in the belts indicated. The Trojan asteroids move in Jupiter's orbit, preceding the planet and following it by about 60 degrees.

    The asteroids east of Jupiter are usually named after Greek heros of the Iliad - Ulysses, Nestor, Agamemnon; and those west of Jupiter are named after Trojan heros - Priam, Aeneas, Troilus. However, before this procedure was started, Hector, a Trojan, was placed in the Greek camp - a spy had infiltrated. But all was well, since Patroclus, a Greek, had been misplaced in the Trojan camp - an interloper for the other side.

LINKS TO: Solar System Development Project If we never recycled, and everyone in the world used resources as rapidly as the most consumptive American, it would take us 40,000 years to use up the ore in the asteroid belt. .

LINKS TO: Asteroid Facts NASA's offical asteroid home page.