Where is the Asteriod belt From?

Located between the orbits of mars and Jupiter roughly 250 million miles from the sun. Populated by dust and debris ranging in size from particles, small asteriods to minor planets, the image portrayed in everyday mannerism is that the asteriod belt is overly polulated with these objects. Which if was true exploration of the outer solar system would be quite difficult to say the least.


This interesting feature gives an diverse look into the past of our home solar system and rasies a couple of questions: How exaclty was this attribute of our star system formed to become what we study today? What can we look forward to [learning] when man is landing upon these objects as we further our human footprint into the solar system and beyond?


How was the Asteriod belt formed:

• Left overs from the formation of the solar system
  
• The result of Jupiters gravitational impact on the inner terrestrial planets as they formed making the fifth planet unable to cohese into a viable inner planet
  
• The left overs from an accient impact between objects and the fifth planet resulting in the destruction of said planet and debris riddling the region known as the asteriod belt.
  

Now what is the cause of what we see? Could one of the above, or none of the above, or a combination of things that contributed to the evolution of our solar systems asteriod packed feature?

Bearing with this in mind: how likely is it that other star systems will have the very same feature as described? Can we expect to some degree a certian predictability of features such as the asteriod belt in other planetary systems about our galaxy?

I look forward to reading others view about this cool feature we call the Astreriod Belt!


A short list of references:
Wiki Asteriod Belt
Kuiper Belt
Exploded Planet Hypothesis


[edit on 21-5-2010 by theability]

I have always like the planet break up my self. They are just too neat. It is that simple.

reply to post by fixer1967


The planet break up sure satisfies the wow factor, could you image witnessing that type of celestial event, sheesh that would be crazy!

The Asteroid Men clothing store??????

reply to post by alchemist2012





I run to Trademark the idea! Seriously though, what would you have to say about the asteriod belt, you opinion about the evolution?

reply to post by theability


yes it does and then some. But here is a thought. what if there was life on it when it happened? Just think of being on a planet that is coming apart. There is no where to go. If it is was a planet that broke up I really hope it was a dead planet. Not even plants or animals should go thought that.

reply to post by fixer1967

Not even plants or animals should go thought that.

I agree wholeheartedly, that would be a major bummer. But if you had to pick, front row seats would be quite the ride.

What suprises me is that so far, people seem to pick the destroyed planet as the reason for the formation.

Cool, I wasn't expecting this...

It was not a planet. Relax.

The entire mass of the asteroid belt is so small it could not have been a planet. That's what they told me anyway.

Nice question

Originally posted by theability
reply to post by fixer1967

 

Not even plants or animals should go thought that.

I agree wholeheartedly, that would be a major bummer. But if you had to pick, front row seats would be quite the ride.

What suprises me is that so far, people seem to pick the destroyed planet as the reason for the formation.

Cool, I wasn't expecting this...

that is also what i feel happened.
most of the guys at the observatory feel the same.

[edit on 22-5-2010 by Ahmose]

There has been a great disturbance in the force like a million souls screaming.... -Obiwan

Well I have always wondered about the belt. I thought for along time that it was so packed that spacecraft had difficulty traversing it.
But now I know otherwise.

That that belt does not have enough mass to form a planet. Ok

But how on Earth did they all get there in a perfect orbit on the place where if you think about it... There should be a planet ???

Could it be that the gravitational force from Jupiter prevented a planet to form ?

The belt could be from left over particles that didn't form into a complete planet and therefore, were captured by the bigger planets gravity.

Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
That that belt does not have enough mass to form a planet. Ok

Correct. If you gathered-up all of the material in the Asteroid belt and put it together, it would still amount to less mass than out moon.

We get suckered by Hollywood, which loves to show us huge swarms of rock tumbling around (Meteor, The Empire Strikes Back & Contact to name three. Heck, even 2001: A Space Odyssey showed asteroids too close together). The average distance between 1 km chunks is >1,000,000 km. (Disclaimer - I still love the asteroid chase in TESB)

But how on Earth did they all get there in a perfect orbit on the place where if you think about it... There should be a planet ???

It's not perfect by any definition. You've got elliptical orbits of different eccentricities in every orientation, looping around between 2 and 5 AU. It's a mess!

Could it be that the gravitational force from Jupiter prevented a planet to form ?

This is exactly right. Star for you! Within that 2-5 AU band, there are several resonance orbits where something there would orbit the Sun 2, 3 or 4 times for every orbit of Jupiter. This means that every few orbits, at nearly the same place, they are getiing a regular gravitational tug from the planet that out-masses everything else in the Solar System put together (excluding the Sun, of course). The proximity to Jupiter makes these resonances strong enough that they "stir" the asteroid orbits and prevent them from ever coming together.

reply to post by Saint Exupery

The proximity to Jupiter makes these resonances strong enough that they "stir" the asteroid orbits and prevent them from ever coming together.

Can you image the Pool shooting game going on out there?

Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
It was not a planet. Relax.

The entire mass of the asteroid belt is so small it could not have been a planet. That's what they told me anyway.

Nice question

How about half or one fourth of a planet?

www.paranoiamagazine.com...

transporter.blog.friendster.com...

Actually something like this might explain how plate tectonics started too.

[edit on 26-5-2010 by RedmoonMWC

[edit on 26-5-2010 by RedmoonMWC]

reply to post by RedmoonMWC


I'm open minded. I'll check your links. Later they looked interesting