At first I thought this simplified illustration of the solar system was whimsical and interesting, but hardly accurate. That band of “Minor Planets” between Jupiter and Mars–that couldn’t be right, could it?
Ah, but it’s true. Hundreds of thousands of minor planets have been discovered within the solar system and thousands more are discovered each month (from Wikipedia). That band in the diagram is more often referred to as the Asteroid Belt, but asteroids are only one class of minor planets bouncing around the Sun.
There are also Dwarf Planets, Centaurs, Trojans, and Trans-Neptunian Objects like Cubewanos and Plutinos–all “minor planets” in our solar system.
The Minor Planet Center, of the International Astronomical Union, logs the many, many minor planets as they’re discovered, along with comets.
Their Latest Published Data indicates, incredibly, 100,913,328 observed Minor Planets and 658,679 comets.
I haven’t been able to find out who the artist of that illustration is, by the way.