Max Lambeth, age 10, of Winston Salem, N.C., for his question:

How were the asteroids formed?

Mars is our planet neighbor, about 48 million miles further from the sun. Beyond Mars is giant Jupiter   whose orbit is some 342 million miles outside the orbit of Mars. There is room in the space between Mars and Jupiter for one, two or even three planets to circle the sun. Instead, we have an uncountable host of asteroids   also called the planetoids or the minor planets.

The largest of the asteroids is Ceres, about 500 miles wide. Some are the size of boulders and most of them are bits of flying gravel. They have been called the debris of the Solar System and, though everyone wonders, no tine is sure how they were formed. Man made satellites like Pioneer  V will one day explore this region of the Solar System and tell us more about it.

Meantime, the history of the asteroids is buried in the Solar System  and the history of the Solar System is still shrouded in mystery. Most experts agree that the planets were formed from gases which came from the sun. Some believe that each planet formed when a great wad of gas cooled and became solid. Others suggest that little wads of gas cooled to form tiny bits of solid matter and countless chunks joined to make each planet.

There are also two general theories as to how the asteroids fit into the history of the Solar System. Some believe that they are the makings of a new planet. However, it would be a very small planet, much smaller than our moon. It is hard to imagine how the little orbiters could get together. True, some of them must crash into each other once in a great while and we believe that once in a while a starry asteroid hits the earth or one of the major planets. But gathering all those fragments together would be a very difficult job.

The other theory suggests that the asteroids are the debris from a planet or planets which once existed between Mars and Jupiter. This planet or planets, we are told, formed when the other major planets of the Solar System were formed   some four billion years ago. The materials in such a planet would separate into layers with the heaviest ones inside.

We cannot imagine what kind of accident must have happenedp or even be sure that it did. But if a planet or planets blew up in the dim past, there must have been an amazing spectacle in the sky. However, all the razzle dazzle had died down before the dawn of mans history.

There is one bit of evidence which might indicate that this is what happened: Some of the solid meteorites which strike the earth are thought to be stray asteroids. Some of them are made entirely of stoney materials, like those in the crust of our planet. Some are made of metals, perhaps like the metal materials in the core of the earth.