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The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, ... When the mean orbital period of an asteroid is an integer fraction of the orbital period of ...
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 ]
The four largest asteroids constitute half the mass of the asteroid belt. Ceres is the only asteroid that appears to have a plastic shape under its own gravity and hence the only one that is a dwarf planet. [74] It has a much higher absolute magnitude than the other asteroids, of around 3.32, [75] and may possess a surface layer of ice. [76]
Fomalhaut asteroid belt is far more complex than researchers had realised
Vesta (minor-planet designation: 4 Vesta) is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of 525 kilometres (326 mi). [10] It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 [6] and is named after Vesta, the virgin goddess of home and hearth from Roman mythology.
The current path of the asteroid also enabled researchers to trace its origins. They suspect it comes from the Arjuna asteroid belt, a sparse population of small near-Earth space objects orbiting ...
10 Hygiea is a major asteroid located in the main asteroid belt.With a mean diameter of between 425 and 440 km and a mass estimated to be 3% of the total mass of the belt, [11] it is the fourth-largest asteroid in the Solar System by both volume and mass, and is the largest of the C-type asteroids (dark asteroids with a carbonaceous surface) in classifications that use G type for 1 Ceres.
Ceres is a dwarf planet and the largest body in the asteroid belt. [19] As it is cryovolcanic, it has potential for asteroid mining of resources for colonization. Its gravitational pull is stronger than other bodies in the asteroid belt, making surface colonization a more realistic possibility. [citation needed]