The asteroid belt is slowly disappearing, and a study reveals its fate.

 

NASA

The asteroid belt is slowly disappearing, and a study reveals its fate.

A team of astronomers, led by Professor Julio Fernandez of the University of the Republic in Uruguay, has reached new findings for those interested in outer space.
It reveals that the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has been steadily losing mass since the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. 

It turns out that the belt is currently losing 0.0088 percent of its active mass per year – the portion that still participates in asteroid collisions.
Although this percentage is small, it represents a massive influx of material over geological time, according to a study recently published in the journal Science Alert.

The secret of the lack of planet formation

The study also indicates that the asteroid belt could have developed into a fully fledged planet, had it not been for the strong gravitational influence of Jupiter, which prevented the material in this region from coalescing, leading to destructive rather than constructive collisions.
This created a vast area littered with rock fragments, but today it contains only about 3 percent of the Moon's mass, spread across millions of kilometers.

fine meteoric dust

According to the analysis, about 20 percent of the missing material escapes from the belt in the form of asteroids and meteoroids, which sometimes cross Earth's orbit and may enter its atmosphere, appearing as bright shooting stars.

In contrast, 80 percent of the mass turns into fine meteoroid dust, which contributes to the formation of zodiacal dust, which is seen as a faint glow in the night sky.

Understanding this process not only helps piece together the history of Earth's surface formation, but also provides crucial data for modeling future hazards from near-Earth objects.