The asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a region of space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter containing millions of rocky bodies called asteroids. These solid, irregularly shaped objects are typically about one million kilometers apart. The belt includes Ceres, the only object large enough to be classified as a dwarf planet, along with three other major asteroids: Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea. The asteroid belt matters because it formed from planetesimals in the primordial solar nebula, but gravitational forces from Jupiter and Mars prevented them from forming a planet. Instead, they remain scattered throughout this region, occasionally colliding. Understanding asteroids helps scientists learn how the solar system formed and evolved.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org: “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.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “on average, are about one million kilometers (or six hundred thousand miles) apart.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “Ceres, the only object in the asteroid belt large enough to be classified as a dwarf planet”
- en.wikipedia.org: “Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea”