where did the asteroid field come from?

Question

was there another planet there?
all other matter in our solar system orbited the sun and joined up to create the planets
why not thease asteroids , why did they not join?
if there was another planet how long ago did it get smashed up?
the sumarians depicted another planet in there writings so has it been smashed up scince we have inhabited the earth?

Answer 1

All of the answers above could be valid, but the truth is no one knows for sure. It could be possible that all the asteroids are left over from when the solar system was formed, but it could equally be that they are the remains of a planet that was somehow destroyed. Don't forget the solar system is an awfully old place, the Earth is at least 4.5 billion years old, so an awful lot could have happened in that time. Who knows, there could of been a planet there with life on it, maybe that's where life on Earth originally came from ?

I've just had another thought, if there was a planet that got broken up somehow, maybe some of the asteroids that originally comprised its surface would still have fossilised signs of any life that was there. Maybe some of them are still covered in grass or remnants of cities and roads etc. Maybe one day NASA will send another probe to have a good look around the asteroids to see ? Can't wait !

Answer 2

When the solar system was forming, the infant sun had a lot of matter and a lot of gas orbiting it. Most of the matter coalesced into four rocky planets, these became the inner planets, the gas became the four gas giants. More of the matter was captured by the gravity the new planets gave out and were trapped as the moons.

However, not all the matter became a part of a planet or one of the many moons and stayed in a reasonable stable orbit between the last rocky inner planet (Mars) and the first of the gas giants (Jupiter). Now the solar system is middle aged and relatively stable. We see that the remainder of the matter has become a belt of rocks ranging in size from a pebble to the really big ones that are many miles across.

We don't know of another planet that was smashed up but it is likely that in the early days of formation that there were many more planets than the eight (if I'm being officially correct) we have today and as the many bodies tumbled around the sun, it's quite possible that they did bash into each other.

Answer 3

The asteroid field is remnants of what would have formed as a planet had Jupiter not become so massive.

Jupiter accounts for 75% of the planetry material in the solar system. It's early development and growth increased its gravitational influence on the early solar system and stopped what possibly would have been the 5th rocky planet from the sun forming. Jupiter probably stunted the growth of mars. However Jupiter also acts as a cosmic hoover and has attracted vast amoounts of comets/asteroids over the past 5 billion years which all had the potential to destroy the earth and certainly life on it at the very least so we have a lot to thank Jupiter for.

The current total mass of the asteroids in the asteroid belt is very small - a fraction of the mass of mars - but in the early solar system the total mass of asteroids was probably similar the the mass of earth - ish.

Answer 4

The asteroid belt is a region of the solar system falling roughly between the planets Mars and Jupiter where the greatest concentration of asteroid orbits can be found.

It is termed the main belt when contrasted with other concentrations of minor planets, since these may also be termed asteroid belts. 98.5% of all numbered minor planets lie in this region [1].

Sometimes, the term main belt is used to refer only to a more compact "core" region where the greatest concentration of bodies is found. This lies between the strong 4:1 and 2:1 Kirkwood gaps at 2.06 and 3.27 AU, and at eccentricities less than roughly 0.33, along with inclinations below about 20°. This "core" region is marked in red in the diagrams below, and contains approximately 93.4% of all numbered minor planets [1]. Several prominent Kirkwood gaps are sometimes used to divide this region into three or four sections

Answer 5

I say there was another planet in place of the asteroid field as there wouldnt be rocks there

Answer 6

Between Mars + Jupiter.

Answer 7

from an asteroid farm

Answer 8

The asteroids came from... OUTER-SPACE... SPACE... SPACE *echo* SPACE space space space space