Figure 8-8Asteroid Orbits (a) The orbits of belt asteroids Ceres, Pallas, and Juno are indicated to scale in this diagram. Some asteroids that are not in the asteroid belt, such as Apollo and Icarus, have highly eccentric paths that cross Earth’s orbit. Other non–belt asteroids, called the Trojan asteroids, follow the same orbit as Jupiter, while other Trojans are in the orbits of Neptune, Uranus, Mars, and Earth. (b) Actual positions of all known asteroids at Jupiter’s orbit or closer. The locations of the belt asteroids are indicated by green dots. Objects passing closer than 1.3 AU to the Sun are shown by red circles. Objects observed at least twice are indicated by filled circles, and objects seen only once are indicated by outline circles. Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids are deep blue squares. Comets are filled and unfilled light-blue squares. Although the asteroids appear packed together in this drawing, they are typically millions of kilometers apart. The small scale here is deceiving!