Final answer:
DNS root servers maintain the root zone database which consists of information necessary to resolve domain names into IP addresses and direct internet traffic to proper naming authorities.
Step-by-step explanation:
The DNS root servers serve as a critical part of the internet infrastructure. These servers maintain the root zone, which is essentially the address book for the internet, holding the information necessary to resolve human-readable domain names into IP addresses that computers use to locate services on the internet. Each DNS root server holds a database of network names and addresses for top-level domains (TLDs), allowing them to direct internet traffic correctly to various naming authorities that handle specific domain extensions like .com, .org, or .net.