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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 .
Phaeton (alternatively Phaethon / ˈ f eɪ. ə θ ən / or Phaëton / ˈ f eɪ. ə t ən /; from Ancient Greek: Φαέθων, romanized: Phaéthōn, pronounced [pʰa.é.tʰɔːn]) is a hypothetical planet hypothesized by the Titius–Bode law to have existed between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, the destruction of which supposedly led to the formation of the asteroid belt (including the ...
The asteroid and comet belts orbit the Sun from the inner rocky planets into outer parts of the Solar System, interstellar space. [ 16 ] [ 17 ] [ 18 ] An astronomical unit , or AU, is the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is approximately 150 billion meters (93 million miles). [ 19 ]
Ceres, the only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, was once categorized as a planet. In the history of astronomy, a handful of Solar System bodies other than Jupiter have been counted as the fifth planet from the Sun. Various hypotheses have also postulated the former existence of a fifth planet, now destroyed, to explain various ...
Below are the descriptions of the three largest bodies in the asteroid belt. They are all considered to be relatively intact protoplanets, a precursor stage before becoming a fully-formed planet (see List of exceptional asteroids): [143] [144] [145] Ceres (2.55–2.98 AU) is the only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt. [146]
After a 4.5-billion-year journey through space, a car-size rock fell to Earth on October 7, 2008 — and it contained a bunch of tiny diamonds.
[12] [13] Such accounts assumed that a head-on impact would have destroyed both planets, creating a short-lived second asteroid belt between the orbits of Venus and Mars. In contrast, evidence published in January 2016 suggests that the impact was indeed a head-on collision and that Theia's remains are on Earth and the Moon. [14] [15] [16]
A small asteroid will be pulled into orbit around the Earth as a “mini-moon” later this month before the space rock departs into other parts of the solar system.. The 10m-wide asteroid, dubbed ...