Asteroid Belt
We explain to you what the asteroid belt is and what is its distance from the Sun. In addition, theories about how it originated.
What is the asteroid belt?
It is known as the asteroid belt or main belt to a region of our solar system located between the J piter and Mars rbites, that is, separating the inner planets from the outer ones . It is characterized by housing a multitude of rocky astronomical objects, irregularly shaped and of different sizes, known as asteroids, and accompanied by the dwarf planet Ceres.
The name of the main Belt is given to differentiate it from other groups of space objects in the Solar System, such as the Kuiper Belt, located behind the Neptune's orbit; or like the Oort Cloud, in the very confines of the Solar System, almost a year-light from the Sun.
The asteroid belt consists of several million celestial bodies, classifiable into three types: carbon (type-C), silicate (type-S) and metal (type-M) . The largest objects present are five: Shovels, Vesta, Higia, Juno and the largest of all: Ceres, classified as a dwarf planet, with a diameter of 950 km. These objects make up more than half of the mass of the main belt, equivalent to just 4% of the mass of the Moon (0.06% of the earth's mass).
Although in the representations they are shown close, forming a compact cloud, the truth is that these asteroids are so far apart, that it would be difficult to navigate that region of space and run into some . On the other hand, due to the usual orbital oscillations that they present, due to their eventual approaches to the J piter orbit (and, therefore, to the effects of their gravity), many asteroids leave the set and are thrown to outer space, or even against some of the inner planets.
See also: Astro.
Asteroid belt distance from the Sun
The objects that make up the Asteroid Belt orbit between J piter and Mars, between 2.1 and 3.4 Astronomical Units (AU) of the Sun, that is, between 314.155.527 and 508.632.758 kilometers away from the Astro King.
Asteroid Belt Origin
The most accepted theory regarding the origin of the asteroid belt is part of the protosolar nebula from which the entire solar system came. That is, it could well be the result of scattered matter that failed to form a larger body, partly due to the interference of gravitational waves from Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. This would have caused the rock fragments to crash into each other or expelled them into space, surviving in a way that is only 1% of the initial total mass.
Older hypotheses suggest that the asteroid belt would have been some planet formed from the primitive nebula, but that it had been destroyed by some orbital impact or by internal explosions. However, this hypothesis seems unlikely given the low mass of the belt in contrast to the very high amounts of energy that would be necessary to blow up a planet in that way.
