Asteroids

Orbiting in a path between Mar and Jupiter are perhaps millions of small, rocky, irregularly shaped objects known a asteroids.  They range in size from a few feet across to those that are hundreds of miles across.  Astronomers believe asteroids re composed of matter left over from the formation of our solar system.  One of the largest asteroids known, ,named Ceres, is approximately 560 miles across, which is actually quite small when compared to most other space objects.
The path is which these objects orbit is called the Asteroids Belt. However, the gravitational pull of the larger planet such as Jupiter can tug as asteroid out of the Asteroid Belt and change its orbit.
A special telescope, called the Space watch Telescope was actually designed to search for asteroids which might cross Earth's orbit and pose a danger for us.  Events such as an asteroid collision may accur only once every 100,000 years; there's really  no need to worry about such a thing happening in our lifetimes.

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