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Asteroid Belt

Definition: Asteroid Belt

Asteroid Belt

Noun

1. The region of interplanetary space between Mars and Jupiter where most asteroids are found.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 


Specialty Definition: Asteroid Belt

DomainDefinition

Geography

A doughnut-like solar-orbit zone located between 2. 1 and 3. 5 AU in which are found thousands of asteroids(starlike objects)of various shapes and sizes. Source: European Union. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Asteroid belt

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The "Asteroid Belt" is a region of the solar system falling roughly between the planets Mars and Jupiter where the greatest concentration of asteroid orbits can be found. The term asteroid belt can also generally describe a region of concentrated asteroids with similar orbits.

Origin

It is believed that, during the first million years of the solar system history, planets formed by accretion of planetesimals. Repeated collisions led to the familiar rocky planets and to the gas giants cores.

However, in this zone of the system the strong gravity of Jupiter inhibited the final stages and the planetesimals could not form a single planet. The planetesimals instead continued to orbit the Sun as before. In this sense, the asteroid belt can be considered a relict of the primitive Solar System, but many observations point to an active evolution of the physical conditions. Instead, the outer Kuiper belt is believed to have had little change.

Asteroid belt environment

Despite popular imagery, the asteroid belt is mostly empty. The asteroids are spread over such a high volume that it would be highly improbable to reach an asteroid without aiming carefully.

Despite this, some 9,000 of asteroids are currently known, and estimates on the total number are in millions range. About 220 of them are lager than 100 km. The biggest asteroid belt member is Ceres, about 1000 km across. The total mass of the Asteroid belt is estimated to be 2.3×1021 kilograms (of which more than a third is accounted by Ceres), which is less than that of Pluto.

The high population makes for a very active environment, where collisions between asteroids occur very often (in astronomical terms). A collision may fragment an asteroid in numerous small pieces (leading to the formation of a new asteroid family, or may glue two asteroids together if occurs at low relative speeds. After five billion years, the current Asteroid belt population bears little resemblance to the original one.

Asteroid belts are a classic of science fiction stories, since they are always portrayed as being so dense that adventurous measures must be taken to avoid an impact. In reality, the asteroids are spread over such a high volume that it would be highly improbable to even pass close a random asteroid. For example, the numerous space probes sent to the outer solar system, just across the main asteroid belt, never had any major problem.

See also: Asteroid, Asteroid family

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Asteroid belt."

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Crosswords: Asteroid Belt

Specialty definitions using "asteroid belt": Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm. (references)

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Asteroid Belt

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

asteroid belt

109

asteroid belt picture

11

asteroid belt fact

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Asteroid Belt

Language Translations for "asteroid belt"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Danish

  

asteroidebælte. (various references)

   

French

  

ceinture d'astéroïdes. (various references)

   

German

  

Asteroidengürtel. (various references)

   

Greek 

  

ζώνη αστεροειδών. (various references)

   

Italian

  

fascia degli asteroidi. (various references)

   

Manx

  

cryss roltageagh. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

asteroiday eltbay

   

Portuguese

  

anel de asteróides. (various references)

   

Spanish

  

cinturón de asteroides. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Misspellings: Asteroid Belt

Misspellings

"Asteroid Belt" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: astroid belt. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Anagrams: Asteroid Belt

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "a-b-d-e-e-i-l-o-r-s-t-t"

-1 letter: obliterated, obliterates.

-2 letters: briolettes, obliterate.

-3 letters: adroitest, aerolites, batteries, beastlier, blattered, bleariest, blistered, bolstered, briolette, desirable, desolater, detailers, dolerites, dotterels, elaterids, estradiol, etiolated, etiolates, idolaters, laborites, laterites, leeboards, liberated, liberates, librettos, literates, lobstered, lotteries, rebottled, rebottles, statelier, steroidal, strobilae, tolerated, tolerates, totalised, trilobate.

-4 letters: abetters, abettors, abseiled, aerolite, albedoes, alertest, arbelest, ariettes, asteroid, ateliers.

 Words containing the letters "a-b-d-e-e-i-l-o-r-s-t-t"
 

+5 letters: demonstrabilities.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Crosswords
3. Expressions: Internet
4. Translations: Modern 		5. Derivations
6. Anagrams
7. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.