3 Juno

Imagine a giant rock floating in space! That's Juno, and it's one of the biggest rocks in a place called the asteroid belt. It's so big that it's like a whole world made of stone. Juno is the third asteroid ever found, and scientists have been studying it for a very, very long time. It's like a super old treasure in our solar system!

A long, long time ago, in 1804, a sky-watcher named Karl Harding spotted Juno. That's even before your great-great-great-grandparents were born! He was looking through his telescope and saw this amazing rocky object. It was a super exciting discovery because it was the third one ever found. It helped scientists learn more about the amazing things out there in space.

Juno is a really big asteroid! It's tied for being the thirteenth largest asteroid out there. If you could compare it to something on Earth, it's like a really, really big mountain. It's also one of the two largest asteroids made of rock, like the kind you find in your backyard, but way, way bigger. It holds about 1% of all the stuff in the asteroid belt!

Juno is a special kind of asteroid called an S-type. That means it's mostly made of rock and some shiny metals. Think of it like a giant, lumpy potato made of stone. It's different from asteroids that are made of ice or metal. This rocky nature makes it really interesting for scientists who want to understand how planets and asteroids were formed a long, long time ago.