Root Servers.
The root name server operators do not determine the content of the root zone file. The file is edited by the IANA according to a process described on the IANA web site. The root name server operators publish the file as received from the IANA. See: http://www.iana.org/root-management.htm
No Internet traffic passes through the root name servers at all. They have nothing to do with routing, note the difference in spelling. Name servers just answer queries from other parts of the DNS.
The root name servers do not store all the information in the DNS. Storing all the information in one place would be totally infeasible today. This is exactly why the DNS was developed as a distributed database. So if you register thatnewdomain.org the root zone file will not change and the root name servers will not give different answers. The ORG zone file will be changed.
The root name servers are not queried every time you browse the web or send mail. Information is cached in the DNS. Your computer will query a caching DNS server to resolve domain names. A well behaved DNS server needs to query the root name servers only once every 48 hours for each particular TLD.
In the meantime it can resolve names for that TLD without involvement of the root name servers. Because of this caching almost all DNS queries are answered without involvement of the root name servers.
The Public-Root Servers are strategically deployed around the globe. They support a global network of domain name servers that provide access to all known, non-colliding, and operational Top-Level Domains Some of their locations
In 2005 the current 12 organisations providing root name service at 13 unique IPv4 addresses. They were:
A - VeriSign Global Registry Services
B - University of Southern California - Information Sciences Institute
C - Cogent Communications
D - University of Maryland
E - NASA Ames Research Center
F - Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.
G - U.S. DOD Network Information Center
H - U.S. Army Research Lab
I - Autonomica/NORDUnet
J - VeriSign Global Registry Services
K - RIPE NCC
L - ICANN
M - WIDE Project