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What are the Largest Known Asteroids?

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What are the Largest Known Asteroids?

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The answer to this question depends on your definition of asteroid. If only objects within the asteroid belt (between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter) count, then the largest asteroids are Ceres (975 km, 606 mi), Vesta (530 km, 329 mi), and Pallas (570 km, 354 mi). These comprise 32%, 9%, and 7% of the asteroid belt’s total mass, respectively. If you expand your definition of asteroids to include all sub-planet, non-satellite objects in the solar system, including bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune, then the largest are Eris (~2,500 km, 1,553 mi), Pluto (1,195 km, 743 mi), and Ceres (975 km, 606 mi), in that order. By comparison, the Earth has a diameter of 12,756 km (7,926 mi). To get an idea of the size of the largest asteroids, consider the largest asteroid known to have impacted the Earth: about 10 km (6 mi) in diameter. This impact, thought to have occurred about 2 billion years ago, is represented by the Vredefort Crater in South Africa. A similar impact represented by the Sudbury

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