Centaurs are icy minor planets orbiting between Jupiter and Neptune — a dynamically unstable transition zone where bodies from the Kuiper Belt drift inward and are eventually ejected or sent sunward as comets. The eight largest known centaurs, including 10199 Chariklo (which has its own ring system) and 2060 Chiron, share this scenario with all four giant planets whose gravity sculpts their planet-crossing paths. Most centaur orbits have lifetimes of only a few million years before a close encounter with a giant planet destabilises them. They represent a fleeting intermediate population between the cold outer reservoir and the active comets of the inner Solar System.