What made the asteroid belt?

Question

Could the asteroid belt have been a former planet, or remnants thereof. Could it have had something to do with what happened to Mars?

Answer 1

There are not enough rocks in the asteroid belt to make even a planet as small as Mercury -- actually Wikipedia lists the total combined mass of all the asteroids to be less than that of the Moon.
The reason there are asteroids is because the great mass of Jupiter has prevented any of the primitive planetesimals from coalescing into a larger planet. No doubt Jupiter took away some of the mass that could otherwise have turned these small bodies into a planet, had there been enough of them left after mister Jupiter vacuumed clean the area...
As to Mars, I have to ask: what has happened to Mars? Do you mean that it lost most of its atmosphere or something? If so, to a certain degree, yes; it is likely that Mars could have been bigger and thus more able to retain a sizable atmosphere, if Jupiter had not been there.
But all that was set in motion and pretty much settled about 4.5 billion years ago, there is not much anyone can do anymore...

Answer 2

I am only remembering this from an astronomy unit in school a long time ago, but I thought the theory was that originally, the entire solar system was similar to the asteroid belt. Gravity began to pull the various entities together. The only reason the asteroid belt hasn't formed a planet is because the slow process of the asteroids tiny combined gravitational forces is constantly interfered with by a) the sun and b) Jupiter. otherwise we might have one more planet.

Answer 3

From what I know-no reseach involved, just 9th grade science class-it was simply formed from material that didn't coagulate into a planet or get pulled into Jupiter or another planet. The stuff that's in the asteroid belt is like a rope in a constant gravitational tug-of-war between the Sun and Jupiter. They're stuck in orbit. Every once in a while, though, two asteroids will collide with enough force to send one out of the belt itself. By the way...What do you mean, "what happened with Mars?"

Answer 4

The asteroid belt is be;leived to be just remains as old as the solar system, forming along with it. it was ment to be rocks and dust that would have collided and formed a planet, but thanks to the close distance of jupitur, some asteroids eventually were thrown out of the solar system! We don't beleive that its a former planet, since it would require an IMMENCE object to colide with the planet. The object also probably would have nearly killed a good portion of the solar system with it! And added together, the planet would only be about the size of pluto unfortunaly...which leads scientists to beleive is just remains of what the solar system was in the early days.

Answer 5

our science teacher told us that scientist believed that once there was a planet between mars and Jupiter then maybe something like the big bang happened and the planet exploded it became bits like asteroids was made.Some asteroids don't revolve around the sun but the asteroid belt does, then maybe it was really a planet once.

Answer 6

there is a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt but thats not what you want me to answer.

the asteroid belt are the rocks that were left over from planet building

Answer 7

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The Asteroid Belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The asteroid belt was hard to see because its composed of all small stuff, like rock and ice chunks.
Asteroids and comets both orbit in this belt.
The average asteroid is a "rubble pile" consisting of large rocky pieces covered in dust.
Comets are basically dirty snowballs.
The tail of a comet can be seen when it is closest to the Sun and the icy particles are melting.

Answer 8

it is because the gravity from Jupiter would make it impossible for a planet to form.

Answer 9

try this site: http://www.solstation.com/stars/asteroid.htm