The Asteroid Belt(sometimes also called minor planets) is a place in our solar system that exists between Mars and Jupiter where collection of space rocks orbits around the sun.
But how was this orbiting field of debris called The Asteroid Belt really formed?
Astronomers once thought, it is a wreckage of a rocky planet, long ago torn apart by the massive gravity of Jupiter. They also considered another possibility i.e The asteroid belt is nothing but a collection of space rocks that could easily coalesce into a planet. The gravity of Jupiter might have prevented it from happening.
More recent theories however contend that the asteroid belt was never a whole planet and is also unlikely to be so in the near future. Why? Because, There is not enough material there.
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The Asteroid Belt:How was it formed?
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The Asteroid Belt: A Former Planet ?
Let's travel back in time with us. Billions of years ago, our solar system was not a stable place. This was the time when planets were still forming due to which it was common for a planet to throw their neighbor's orbit out of the whack. Due to this reason, Many astronomers used to believe that during that time, a planet was present between the trajectories of Mars and Jupiter.This planet was blasted into pieces and formed the asteroid belt we know at present. But after examining the patterns in iron meteorites that fell into the Earth, they reached to the conclusion that they didn't come from one parent body. This means,all Rocks present in the asteroid belt were never combined into one body. So,the conclusion is:
The Asteroid Belt is not a wreckage of destroyed planet.
The Asteroid Belt: A Future Planet?
The Asteroid belt is full of materials to form a planet. Does it mean, The asteroid belt could form a new planet in future? The problem with this theory is
there isn't enough material there to create such a mass. In addition, astronomers have established that the age of asteroids in the main belt also varies. There is the
Karin family, a group of about 90 main-belt asteroids that share an orbit and are thought to have come from a single object an estimated 5.7 million years ago. And there is the
Veritas family, from an estimated 8.3 million years ago. A very recent group is the
Datura family, dating from just 530,000 years ago from a collision. According to
Raymond,
an astronomer at the Astrophysical Laboratory of Bordeaux, in France:
Ceres is the single largest asteroid in the belt, roughly the size of Australia with a mass nearly half that of all the material of the belt.It's like tiny little crumbs.
So, How was the asteroid belt really formed?
We now know the asteroid belt doesn't contain material from a single source. So, What could have happened?
During the solar system's early period of instability, planets were still getting formed. Their orbit was not fixed like today. They were moving in the space for finding their suitable orbit. The powerful gravities of planets like Saturn and Jupiter would have surely deflected the leftovers of those early planets to an area of space we currently know as the asteroid belt. It might also have gathered some of its components from the region of space it currently inhabits. Other materials may have come from sources beyond the orbit of Jupiter as well.
FAQs related to the Asteroid Belt
What is the asteroid belt?
The Asteroid Belt(sometimes also called minor planets) is a torus-shaped place in our solar system that exists between Mars and Jupiter where collection of space rocks of many sizes orbits around the sun.
Where is asteroid belt located?
The asteroid belt is located between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter.
Was the asteroid belt once a planet?
No, asteroid belt was never a planet because on examination of asteroids present there, We have found that they are not the part of a single body.
Who discovered the asteroid belt?
Asteroid belt was first discovered in 1801.This was the year in which Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres. Ceres was the first object to be observed in the asteroid belt.It is a dwarf planet. a large asteroid named Pallas was discovered 15 months later.
Is asteroid belt dangerous?
Asteroid belt is not exactly dangerous in direct sense but they does pose a risk to the humanity because large number of rocks of different shapes and sizes are present there. These rocks can cause cataclysmic effect on impact with earth's surface. They can also damage our spacecrafts present in outer space.
What is asteroid belt made of?
Most of the asteroids in the Main Belt are made of rock and stone, but a small portion of them contain iron and nickel metals. The remaining asteroids are made up of a mix of these, along with carbon-rich materials.
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