Could there really have been a large planet between Mars &Jupiter in the past: why the asteroid belt is there?

Question

I've heard about the possibility that it was destroyed within the last 10-20,000 years and could even be responcible for Saturn's ring of ice. Plus it caused great destruction on Earth... It could be interpreted that way from many ancient religious texts too..

Answer 1

Like someone else said, there's no way that it was a planet that recently was destroyed, since there isn't nearly enough mass there to make up a planet.

Most astronomers agree that no planet ever formed between Mars and Jupiter, largely because the pull of Jupiter's gravity prevented the material from coming together in the first place. You may want to look up information on the Kirkwood Gaps for info on how Jupiter affects the asteroid belt today.

Saturn's rings are caused by the same thing Jupiter's rings, Uranus's rings, and Neptune's rings are caused by - the rings are material from moons that do/did orbit the planet.

Answer 2

Probably not. The combined mass of all the asteroids is a lot less than you might think - only 1/30 the mass of the moon, in fact.

The current thinking on the asteroid belt is that it was there the solar system was created. A planet was never formed because it lacked sufficient mass. In a sense, it forms the boundary between the rocky inner planets and the gaseous outer ones.

Answer 3

Possibly, but if there had been, it would have been formed when the other planets formed about 5 billion years ago. No way it would have lasted 5 billion years just to fall apart 20,000 years ago. If it did exist, it would have been pulled apart by gravitational forces billions of years ago. It only takes a few years for Mars and Jupiter to go around the Sun and pass each other - it wouldn't have taken long for an unstable body to be pulled apart by tidal forces.

Answer 4

10-20k years go would be very unlikely

the solarsystem is aprox 5 bilion years old, for a planet to be in an stable orbit for 4.9999 billion years and then collapsing from it would be very unlikely.

if it were to have collided with earth, it would have destroyed both planets, so thats severily unlikely aswell.

Since between saturn and the asteroid belts there are mars and jupiter it also unlikely that that planet had anything to do with the rinds forming on saturn. (just ecause of the great distance between them)

Answer 5

this is Jupiter's gravity that stops the Asteroid Belt coalescing right into a single physique. besides the undeniable fact that, even it it did, it somewhat does not make a planet. the comprehensive mass of the Belt is barely approximately 4% of that of our Moon.