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The asteroid belt is a torus -shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets.
- C-type
253 Mathilde, a C-type asteroid. C-type (carbonaceous / ˌ k...
- 4 Vesta
Vesta (minor-planet designation: 4 Vesta) is one of the...
- Centaurs
In planetary astronomy, a centaur is a small Solar System...
- Solar System belts
Solar System belts are asteroid and comet belts that orbit...
- Asteroid
Of the roughly one million known asteroids, [1] the greatest...
- C-type
- Discovery
- Structure
- Composition
- Families and Groups
- Origin
- Exploration
In 1800, hoping to resolve the issue created by the Titius-Bode Law, astronomer Baron Franz Xaver von Zach recruited 24 of his fellow astronomers into a club known as the “United Astronomical Society” (sometimes referred to the as “Stellar Police”). At the time, its ranks included famed astronomer William Herschel, who had discovered Uranus and its...
Despite common perceptions, the Asteroid Belt is mostly empty space, with the asteroids spread over a large volume of space. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of asteroids are currently known, and the total number ranges in the millions or more. Over 200 asteroids are known to be larger than 100 km in diameter, and a survey in the infrared wavele...
Much like the terrestrial planets, most asteroids are composed of silicate rock while a small portion contains metals such as iron and nickel. The remaining asteroids are made up of a mix of these, along with carbon-rich materials. Some of the more distant asteroids tend to contain more ices and volatiles, which includes water ice. The Main Belt co...
Approximately one-third of the asteroids in the asteroid belt are members of an asteroid family. These are based on similarities in orbital elements – such as semi-major axis, eccentricity, orbital inclinations, and similar spectral features, all of which indicate a common origin. Most likely, this would have involved collisions between larger obje...
Originally, the Asteroid Belt was thought to be the remnants of a much larger planet that occupied the region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This theory was originally suggested by Heinrich Olbders to William Herschel as a possible explanation for the existence of Ceres and Pallas. However, this hypothesis has since fallen out of favor for...
The asteroid belt is so thinly populated that several unmanned spacecraft have been able to move through it; either as part of a long-range mission to the outer Solar System, or (in recent years) as a mission to study larger Asteroid Belt objects. In fact, due to the low density of materials within the Belt, the odds of a probe running into an aste...
The asteroid belt is a region of space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where most of the asteroids in our Solar System are found orbiting the Sun. The asteroid belt probably contains millions of asteroids. Astronomers think that the asteroid belt is made up of material that was never able to form into a planet, or of the remains of a ...
The asteroid belt or main belt is a ring of small and large rocks and dust between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The biggest object in the asteroid belt is Ceres, a dwarf planet. The Kirkwood gaps separate the asteroid belt into several groups.
Feb 7, 2023 · Image via Wikimedia Commons. Meet the asteroid belt, a place in our solar system where small bodies – mostly rocky and some metallic – orbit the sun. Sometimes scientists call these little...
