132524 APL (provisional designation 2002 JF56) is a small background asteroid in the intermediate asteroid belt. It was discovered by Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research in May 2002, and imaged by the New Horizons space probe on its flyby in June 2006, when it was passing through the asteroid belt. The stony S-type asteroid measures approximately 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) in diameter.
APL seen by New Horizons from 1.3 million kilometers in June 2006
Top and bottom images of APL taken by Ralph at 1.34 and 3.36 million kilometers, respectively
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets. The identified objects are of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, and, on average, are about one million kilometers apart. This asteroid belt is also called the main asteroid belt or main belt to distinguish it from other asteroid populations in the Solar System.
By far the largest object within the belt is the dwarf planet Ceres. The total mass of the asteroid belt is significantly less than Pluto's, and roughly twice that of Pluto's moon Charon.
In 1596, Johannes Kepler's sense of proportion for the planetary orbits led him to believe that an invisible planet lay between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Giuseppe Piazzi, discoverer of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt: Ceres was known as a planet, but later reclassified as an asteroid and from 2006 as a dwarf planet.
951 Gaspra, the first asteroid imaged by a spacecraft, as viewed during Galileo's 1991 flyby; colors are exaggerated
