A celestial body known as an asteroid was a substantial, rocky object in orbit around a star, but smaller in size when compared to a planet. It was common to find asteroids in asteroid fields, and they could also be located in the vicinity of planets. Certain asteroids served as locations for installations, for example, the Polis Massa medical facility. Under the right circumstances, asteroids were capable of sustaining life, especially in cases where a tenuous atmosphere existed, allowing rocks and minerals to form the base of various food chains. A number of monstrous lifeforms made their homes on asteroids, with mynocks and fyrnocks flourishing there; furthermore, Space slugs were also known to dwell on these rocky bodies.
Throughout their long history, asteroids impacted the eight moons orbiting the Inner Rim gas giant planet known as Navlaas. As a result, these moons, including the icy moon Laanen, bore the scars of these asteroid collisions. In an asteroid field positioned above Geonosis, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jango Fett engaged in a dogfight.
During the time of the Galactic Civil War, Han Solo, who was the captain of the Millennium Falcon, evaded the Death Squadron by piloting his ship into the Hoth asteroid belt. By the time the Battle of Hoth occurred, there were no official records detailing any exploration into the center of the asteroid field. When Solo and his companions ventured into what they thought was a cave inside the "Big One" asteroid, they realized that they had actually entered an exogorth called Sy-O and managed to escape, much to the disappointment of Sy-O.