How do scientist explain the location of the asteroid belt?

Answer 1

Before the discovery of the Asteroid Belt, many astronomers and mathematicians wondered why it is that the planets are arranged in the orbits that we see today. Foremost amongst their questions was: 'Why is there such a large gap between Mars and Jupiter?' There were many theories put forward in an attempt to explain this anomaly, but the first one that contemplated the existence of the Asteroid Belt was proposed by Thomas Wright in the mid-18th Century; he thought that it might contain a planet that had been smashed apart by a comet.

Answer 2

Scientists believe that the asteroid belt exists because of the gravitational influence of Jupiter, which prevented the formation of a planet in that region. As a result, the leftover rocky debris from the early Solar System instead formed the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Answer 3

First kuiper-belt object was found by astronomer David Jewitt and his former student Jane Luu, in 1992. A half year later they found the next object. I took them five years to find the first, largely because of the blink comparison method which took hours.

Answer 4

It's really difficult to say. Benjamin Silliman was one of the first moderns to conclude that meteorites had an astrological origin. Denison Olmstead believed that a particular meteor shower (the Leonids) was definitely coming from space. Heinrich-Wilhelm Olbers, and Hubert Newton analyzed the Leonid meteor shower and predicted its return. Giovanni Schiaparelli ... the same guy that called the dark markings on Mars 'canali' ... connected them with a specific comet, proving definitively that they were coming from space and thus implying meteoroids.

Answer 5

It's "left over" material that didn't get formed into planets because of Jupiter's gravity well. Once some wondered if it could be the remains of an exploded planet, but there's just not enough material for that.

Answer 6

Nobody knows. As constellations go, the shape of Orion is VERY easy to imagine in the sky, and the "belt" is as clear as can be. Orion is one of the most noticeable constellations in the sky; it has been known since antiquity.

Answer 7

No one person, really. It's kind of complicated. The first asteroid to be discovered was Ceres on the first day of the 19th century (January 1 1801) by Giuseppe Piazzi. About 15 months later Heinrich Olbers discovered Pallas in a similar orbit. Karl Harding discovered Juno in 1804 and Olbers discovered Vesta in 1807. All of these were at the time considered to be planets (sort of similar to the situation with Pluto until recently), though shortly after the discovery of Pallas William Herschel proposed calling them asteroids (meaning "starlike") because, unlike the other known planets, they did not show a visible disc even when observed through the most powerful telescopes of the time. The next one to be discovered was Astraea in 1845 by Karl Hencke; in 1847 he discovered Hebe as well. After that the discoveries came faster and faster, and the phrase "asteroid belt" came into use sometime in the early 1850s. It's not known who exactly was the first person to use the term.

Answer 8

No one knows for sure. But it is highly probable that the asteroid belt was formed within a few million years of the birth of our Solar System. The Sun was formed about 4.57 billion years ago, so the asteroid belt formed shortly after.

Answer 9

The first asteroid, Ceres, was discovered on the very first day of the 19th. century, i.e., 1. Jan. 1801. In the next few years, various other asteroids were discovered; it soon became clear that many of them were at a distance, from the Sun, somewhere between that of Mars and Jupiter.

Answer 10

its located in between Mars and Jupiter's orbit .The gravity of Jupiter may have kept a planet from forming in the area where the asteroid belt is now located.