Interesting Facts about The Asteroid Belt

• The Asteroid Belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
• The asteroids are also called minor planets and are irregularly shaped.
• A fifth planet could have formed in this region, but Jupiter's massive gravitational pull stops this from happening.
• The asteriods are composed primarilyy of rock and range in size from dust particles to about 590 miles across.
• A few asteroids have moons of their own.
• If all of the asteroids in the belt were lumped together, it would be smaller than Earth's moon.
• This belt is not like the asteroid fields in movies; these asteroids are very far apart.
• Ceres, the largest object in this region, now qualifies as a dwarf planet like Pluto.
  

by Amaryllis Place

Filed under: Interesting Facts, Asteroid Belt