More Crumbs of Creation: Formation of the Asteroid Belt
Slightly less than 4.5 billion years ago
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Asteroids
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The solar system's main asteroid belt, located between Jupiter and Mars, is thought to be the primary source of meteorites that fall to Earth. Asteroids and asteroid fragments are sometimes knocked out of the belt and hurled into space where they occasionally hit Earth.
Like meteors, asteroids are smaller objects left over from the formation of the solar system. It's believed that these pieces were prevented from fusing into planets by the tremendous gravitational effect of nearby Jupiter.
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