Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Physical / Universe / Solar System / Asteroid Belt
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Introduction1
American Museum of Natural History (YouTube Channel)
American Museum of Natural History (Official Website)
Encyclopedia
Asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called asteroids or minor planets. It is also called the main asteroid belt to distinguish it from other asteroid populations in the Solar System such as near-Earth asteroids and trojan asteroids. About half its mass is contained in the four largest asteroids: Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea. The total mass of the asteroid belt is about 4% that of the Moon. Ceres, the only object in the asteroid belt large enough to be a dwarf planet, is about 950 km in diameter, whereas Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea have mean diameters less than 600 km. The remaining bodies range down to the size of a dust particle. — Wikipedia
Asteroid Belt (Encyclopædia Britannica)
Asteroid Belt (COSMOS: The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy)
Asteroid Belt (Wolfram Alpha)
Minor Planets (Wolfram Alpha)
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Inspiration
Articles about the Asteroid Belt (Big Think)
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Innovation
Science
Dawn was a space probe that was launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 16, 2011, and completed a 14-month survey mission before leaving for Ceres in late 2012. It entered orbit around Ceres on March 6, 2015. In 2017, NASA announced that the planned nine-year mission would be extended until the probe’s hydrazine fuel supply was depleted. On November 1, 2018, NASA announced that Dawn had depleted its hydrazine, and the mission was ended. The spacecraft is currently in a derelict, but stable, orbit around Ceres. Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies, the first spacecraft to visit Vesta and Ceres, and the first to orbit a dwarf planet. — Wikipedia
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (YouTube Channel)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Official Website)
Dawn (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, YouTube Playlist)
Legacy of NASA’s Dawn, Near the End of its Mission (NASA/JPL)
Dawn (JPL, NASA)
Dawn Mission (NASA)
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Preservation
History
Asteroids: The Discovery of Asteroids (European Space Agency)
Discovery of Asteroids (National Air and Space Museum)
Library
DDC: 523.44 Asteroid Belt (Library Thing)
Subject: Asteroid Belt (Library Thing)
Subject: Asteroid Belt (Open Library)
LCC: QB 651 Asteroid Belt (Library of Congress)
Subject: Asteroid Belt (Library of Congress)
Subject: Asteroid Belt (WorldCat)
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Participation
Education
Asteroid Belt (Cosmos4Kids)
Planets and Dwarf Planets (Ask an Astronomer, Cornell University)
MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources
Community
Organization
Minor Planet Center (International Astronomical Union)
News
Asteroid Belt (JSTOR)
Asteroid Belt (Astronomy Magazine)
Asteroid Belt (Phys.org)
Government
Document
More…
Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine.
- Five incredible craters that will make you fall...on June 5, 2023 at 6:08 pm
Impact cratering happens on every solid body in the solar system. In fact, it is the dominant process affecting the surfaces on most extraterrestrial bodies today.
- UAE announces groundbreaking mission to asteroid...on May 29, 2023 at 6:38 pm
The United Arab Emirates unveiled plans Monday to send a spaceship to explore the solar system's main asteroid belt, the latest space project by the oil-rich nation after it launched the successful Hope spacecraft to Mars in 2020.
- NASA's Lucy spacecraft adjusts course for...on May 19, 2023 at 3:19 pm
On May 9, NASA's Lucy spacecraft carried out a trajectory correction maneuver to set the spacecraft on course for its close encounter with the small main belt asteroid Dinkinesh. The maneuver changed the velocity of the spacecraft by only about 7.7 mph (3.4 m/s).
- Astronomers want your help hunting for asteroidson May 17, 2023 at 5:14 pm
Anyone can become an asteroid hunter thanks to a new program launched by astronomers at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. As part of the Catalina Sky Survey, the scientists created an online portal that opens their mission—the discovery and identification of space rocks that regularly visit Earth's neighborhood—to the general public.
- James Webb Space Telescope detects outgassing...on May 15, 2023 at 4:22 pm
After 15 years of attempts, researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have for the first time successfully detected water outgassing from a main-belt comet.
- Webb looks for Fomalhaut's asteroid belt and...on May 8, 2023 at 6:08 pm
Astronomers used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to image the warm dust around a nearby young star, Fomalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt ever seen outside of our solar system in infrared light. But to their surprise, the dusty structures are much more complex than the asteroid and Kuiper dust belts of our solar system. Overall, there are three nested belts extending out to 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the star; that's 150 times the distance of Earth from the […]
- NASA's Lucy mission snaps its first views of...on April 14, 2023 at 4:47 pm
Some of the asteroids NASA's Lucy mission will visit are still more than 330 million miles (530 million kilometers) away from the spacecraft, which is more than three times the average distance between Earth and the sun. But despite the great distance and the comparatively small sizes of these asteroids, Lucy caught views of four of them recently.
- New asteroid sample study offers further hints of...on March 25, 2023 at 2:40 pm
How did life come about? The answer to this question goes to the very heart of our existence on planet Earth.
- A surprisingly simple explanation for 'Oumuamua's...on March 22, 2023 at 4:00 pm
In 2017, a mysterious comet dubbed 'Oumuamua fired the imaginations of scientists and the public alike. It was the first known visitor from outside our solar system, it had no bright coma or dust tail, like most comets, and a peculiar shape—something between a cigar and a pancake—and its small size more befitted an asteroid than a comet.
- Measuring the cohesive force of meteorite...on March 22, 2023 at 2:58 pm
The cohesive force of asteroid particles influence microgravity and can be evaluated under several assumptions of particle size and their sensitivity to particle shape. Approximately hundreds of kilograms of material fall on to Earth's atmosphere daily from space, and filter down as tiny grains and fine dust. Many meteorites that reach Earth from space are pieces of asteroids.
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Related
Here are links to pages about closely related subjects.
“Fundamentals”
Law (Constant) Relativity
Force Gravity, Electromagnetism (Light, Color)
Matter (Microscope) Molecule, Atom (Periodic Table), Particle
“Space”
Universe (Astronomical Instrument)
Galaxy Milky Way, Andromeda
Planetary System Star, Brown Dwarf, Planet, Moon
Our Neighborhood
Solar System Sun
Terrestrial Planet Mercury, Venus, Earth (Moon), Mars
Asteroid Belt Ceres, Vesta
Jovian Planet Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Trans-Neptunian Object
Kuiper Belt Pluto, Haumea, Makemake
Scattered Disc Eris, Sedna, Planet X
Oort Cloud Etc. Scholz’s Star
Small Body Comet, Centaur, Asteroid
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Notes
1. The resources on this page are are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma.