Asteroid Belt – National Geographic in Spanish

The asteroid belt is the boundary between rocky and gaseous planets. Here we tell you what it is and how it was formed 4.5 billion years ago.

great The Cosmic Rock Corridor runs between Jupiter and Mars. This natural boundary divides our solar system in two: on one side – farthest from Earth – are gas giant planets. On the other hand, there are the rocky planets. for this region He is known as asteroid belt, which is made up of only fragments of cosmic debris. This is what we know about her.

Also read: This is the Oort Cloud, the cosmic “shell” that surrounds our solar system

How is the asteroid belt formed?

This region of the solar system is known as the “asteroid belt”. form a circle around the rocky planets, Like it was really a belt. beyond these limits It is the gas giant that revolves around the sun: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

This natural barrier It consists of small rocky and metallic bodies. Scientists sometimes call themminor planetsFor these things, the Observation Deck explains SeaSky:

These objects mainly move between the orbits of the fourth planet in our solar system, Mars, and our fifth planet, Jupiter. Astronomy scientists […] They think asteroids are likely just leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. “

from its Greek roots, asteroid translates as “little star” or “star-shaped”. From this, the asteroid belt of the solar system is formed hundreds of millions of “little stars”, It reflects sunlight like no other object in our cosmic neighborhood.

This name comes from the 19th century, when European astronomers first discovered this rocky area. on time, They thought they were stars. However, with contemporary technology, we have actually realized that They are rocks that revolve around the sun..

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