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Loading contentThe rocky and icy small bodies of the Solar System — from the main belt and the near-Earth asteroids to the Trojans, Centaurs, and the frozen worlds beyond Neptune — connected through the Knowledge Graph to their families, orbital resonances, and the spacecraft that explore them.
Every asteroid, dwarf planet, and minor body modelled in the encyclopedia.
38 bodiesThe most massive minor planets, led by the dwarf planet Ceres and the giant main-belt asteroids Vesta and Pallas.
20 bodiesAsteroids whose orbits bring them close to Earth — the Apollo, Aten, Amor, and Atira classes.
11 bodiesNear-Earth asteroids large enough and close enough to warrant tracking, under the objective PHA criterion — a monitoring category, not a prediction of impact.
5 bodiesBodies of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
16 bodiesThe minor-planet dwarf planets — Ceres in the asteroid belt, and Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris beyond Neptune.
2 bodiesMinor planets sharing a giant planet's orbit at its Lagrange points, chiefly the Jupiter Trojans.
2 bodiesIcy bodies orbiting among the giant planets, transitional between the Kuiper Belt and the comets.
1 bodiesIcy minor planets beyond Neptune — Kuiper Belt, scattered-disc, and detached objects.
4 bodiesBodies of the broad icy ring beyond Neptune's orbit.
3 bodiesMetal-rich (M-type) asteroids, such as the mission target 16 Psyche.
2 bodiesDark, primitive, carbon-rich (C-type and related) asteroids — the most common kind.
12 bodiesStony (S-type) asteroids, common in the inner main belt and among near-Earth objects.
10 bodiesAsteroids with a single moon, such as Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos.
3 bodiesAsteroids with two moons — led by 87 Sylvia, the first triple asteroid system found.
1 bodiesMinor planets that have been visited by a spacecraft.
10 bodiesAsteroids from which spacecraft have returned samples to Earth — Itokawa, Ryugu, and Bennu.
3 bodiesMinor planets that have been, or are being, visited by a mission.
12 bodiesThe minor planets found in the nineteenth century, from Ceres (1801) onward.
18 bodiesReal bodies frequently discussed as candidates for future resource use — metal-rich or volatile-rich, and relatively accessible. Inclusion is not a claim that mining is planned or feasible.
4 bodiesHow near-Earth objects are discovered, tracked, and — if ever necessary — deflected. 5 potentially hazardous asteroids and 3 historic impact events are catalogued, alongside the DART and Hera deflection missions. This is a scientific monitoring topic, described without alarm.
The mean-motion resonances that sculpt the minor-planet populations.
| Name | Category | Type | Diameter | Discovered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceres | Dwarf planet | Carbonaceous (C) | 939 km | 1801 |
| 4 Vesta | Main belt | Basaltic (V) | 525 km | 1807 |
| 2 Pallas | Main belt | Carbonaceous (C) | 513 km | 1802 |
| 10 Hygiea | Main belt | Carbonaceous (C) | 434 km | 1849 |
| 704 Interamnia | Main belt | Carbonaceous (C) | 332 km | 1910 |
| 52 Europa | Main belt | Carbonaceous (C) | 315 km | 1858 |
| 511 Davida | Main belt | Carbonaceous (C) | 289 km | 1903 |
| 15 Eunomia | Main belt | Silicaceous (S) | 268 km | 1851 |
| 31 Euphrosyne | Main belt | Carbonaceous (C) | 256 km | 1854 |
| 87 Sylvia | Main belt | Carbonaceous (C) | 253 km | 1866 |
| 3 Juno | Main belt | Silicaceous (S) | 233 km | 1804 |
| 16 Psyche | Main belt | Metallic (M) | 222 km | 1852 |
Each asteroid, family, population, near-Earth class, Trojan group, resonance, and impact event is a first-class knowledge-graph entity resolved through the Scientific Data Engine. Designations follow the IAU Minor Planet Center; orbits and sizes come from the NASA/JPL Small-Body Database. The five dwarf planets, the previously-modelled asteroids, and the small-body missions are the platform's existing entities — reused, never duplicated, and their canonical pages are unchanged. Unknown values are left blank. See source quality.