Concept of Asteroids and Asteroid Belts

Asteroids are small rocky bodies in the solar system that orbit the sun. An asteroid belt is a region in space where most asteroids are found. Asteroids are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in the Main Asteroid belt of our solar system. The concept of Asteroids and Asteroid Belts originated in 1801 when the first asteroid, Ceres, was discovered. Ceres was initially accepted as a new planet in the solar system. Later, when other smaller celestial bodies were discovered, Ceres was reclassified as an Asteroid.

Asteroids

Asteroids, also known as minor planets, are small rocky bodies in the solar system that orbit the sun. Asteroids are rocky remnants built from the leftovers from when our solar system was formed about 4.5 billion years ago. There are about 1,113,527 known asteroids as of now. Most of the asteroids are shaped irregularly, while some are spherical. The asteroids revolve around the sun in elliptical orbits and rotate quite erratically. A small companion moon has been found for more than 150 asteroids. Binary asteroids are those asteroids where two of them orbit each other. Triple asteroid systems have also been observed in the main asteroid belt.

Composition of Asteroids

The asteroids are broadly classified into three broad composition classes:

•     The most common and ancient objects in the solar system are C-type (chondrite) asteroids. They are made of silicate rocks and clay and have a dark appearance.
•     The S-types (“stony”) asteroids consist of nickel-iron and silicate materials.
•     The M-type asteroids are metallic (nickel-iron) asteroids. The difference in the composition of asteroids is related to the distance of the asteroid from the sun that formed them. Asteroids that experienced high temperatures after they formed were melted partly, resulting in the iron content sinking to the centre and basaltic lava on the surface.
•     E-type, P-type, Q-type, A-type, D-type, and R-type are some of the rare types of asteroids.

Types of Asteroids

Main Asteroid Belt: Most of the asteroids are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, known as the main asteroid belt. Asteroids in the main asteroid belt do not have very elongated orbits. The main asteroid belt contains approximately 1 to 1.9 million asteroids that are as large as 1 kilometre in diameter and other millions of smaller asteroids.

Trojans: The Trojan asteroids are those that share an orbit with a bigger planet and do not collide with the planet at any point because they gather around the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points in the orbit. The most significant population of Trojan asteroids is formed by the Jupiter trojans. The earth trojan was discovered in 2011.

Near-Earth Asteroids: These objects have orbits that pass close by that of Earth. Asteroids that actually cross Earth’s orbital path are known as Earth-crossers.

Asteroid Belts

An asteroid belt is a region in space where most asteroids scattered in the solar system are found. The rocky objects found in asteroid belts are known as asteroids or planetoids. Asteroids are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in the Main Asteroid belt of our solar system. The main asteroid belt is more than two and a half times farther away from the sun than Earth is.

Origin of Asteroid Belts

When the solar system formed, rock and dust revolving around the sun were pulled together by gravity and formed planets. In this process, not all of the dust and rock resulted in planets. Some became minor planets, also known as asteroids. The main asteroid belt between the planets, Mars and Jupiter, was formed.

Kuiper Asteroid Belt

The Kuiper asteroid Belt is a huge outer asteroid belt in our solar system that is beyond the orbit of the outermost planet, Neptune. The Kuiper asteroid belt is also known as our solar system’s “third zone.” Scientists believe that millions of small and icy celestial bodies are in the Kuiper belt. Pluto is also one of the dwarf planets existing in the Kuiper belt.

Conclusion

That’s all about the concept of Asteroids and Asteroid belts, and we discussed what asteroids and asteroid belts are and how they are formed and classified. We concluded that Asteroids are small rocky bodies in the solar system orbiting the sun. An asteroid belt is a region in space where most asteroids are found. Asteroids are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in the Main Asteroid belt of our solar system. Moreover, we also discussed the types of asteroids and the origin of asteroid belts.