The discovery of things in the heavens often comes about much like the solving of a mystery. This is the way the asteroids were discovered.

Two men, Titius and Bode, had at different times figured out that there must be a planet between Mars and Jupiter; there was such a large gap in the distance between them. So several astronomers set about searching for this planet.

In 1801, a planet was actually found there. It was named Ceres, but is was a very tiny planet indeed, with a diameter of only 480 miles. So it was believed that it could be only one of a group of small planets and the search went on.

In time, three more tiny planets were found, the brightest of which was only half the size of Ceres. Astronomers decided that a larger planet must have exploded and left these four tiny pieces. But after 15 years of searching, another astronomer found still another tiny planet and this started the hunt again.

By 1890,300 small planets had been found, and between 1890 and 1927, 2,000 had been discovered! These tiny planets, all rotating around the sun in the area between Mars and Jupiter, are called asteroids.

To indicate how small they are, l 95 of them have diameters of more than 61 miles; 502, between 25 and 61 miles; 193, between 10 and 25 miles; and 22 of them have diameters of less than 10 miles!

If the mass of all the asteroids were added together, it would only be 1/3000 of that of the earth. So even if all the asteroids were united, they would form an insignificant planet.

As to how the asteroids were formed, the theory is that a satellite of Jupiter exploded and created these fragments.