Table of Contents
- 1 What is the average distance between asteroids in the asteroid belt?
- 2 How many asteroids have been discovered in the asteroid belt?
- 3 What is the distance between asteroid?
- 4 What is the distance between Earth and the asteroid belt?
- 5 Is it possible to pass the asteroid belt?
- 6 What is the distance between the asteroid belt and Earth?
What is the average distance between asteroids in the asteroid belt?
There are more than 100,000 asteroids larger than 1 kilometer in diameter, but these objects are distributed within the huge volume of the asteroid belt. Their average spacing is several million kilometers.
How many asteroids have been discovered in the asteroid belt?
Discovery of Asteroids In 1802, two more were discovered. Asteroids are numbered in order of their discovery and many have been named. For example, the first asteroid discovered is 1 Ceres, the second is 2 Pallas, etc. More than 400,000 asteroids have been discovered in the main asteroid belt.
Has anyone been past the asteroid belt?
At the time there was some concern that the debris in the belt would pose a hazard to the spacecraft, but it has since been safely traversed by 12 spacecraft without incident. Pioneer 11, Voyagers 1 and 2 and Ulysses passed through the belt without imaging any asteroids.
What is the average distance from the Sun to the asteroid belt in kilometers?
Because the asteroid belt is between the Mars and Jupiter orbits, it is around 2.2 to 3.2 Astronomical Units (AU) from the Sun – which is approximately 329,115,316 to 478,713,186 km. The average distance between objects is a massive 600,000 miles.
What is the distance between asteroid?
about 600,000 miles
Astronomers estimate that the average distance between two asteroids in the asteroid belt is about 600,000 miles (966,000 km).
What is the distance between Earth and the asteroid belt?
But of course, at any given time, part of the Asteroid Belt will be on the opposite side of the Sun relative to us as well. From this vantage point, the distance between Earth and the Asteroid Belt ranges from 3.2 and 4.2 AU – 478.7 to 628.3 million km (297.45 to 390.4 million mi).
How many asteroids have been discovered so far?
This means they contain the same material which built the rocky planets, such as Earth or Mars. Astronomers have found more than one million asteroids so far. 20,000 of them have names and the rest have identifying numbers. The 3 largest asteroids are more than 400 km in diameter.
What is the distance between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter?
No planet has a perfectly circular orbit around the sun and therefore the distance between each planet can take on two very extreme numbers. The AVERAGE distance between Mars and Jupiter is 3.68 AU. That’s approximately 550,390,000 km or 342,012,346 miles.
Is it possible to pass the asteroid belt?
Yes, you could go “over” or “under” the asteroid belt. However, plane changes are expensive, and as pointed out in the comments, the asteroid belt is not very dense (average distance of 600,000 miles [1 million kilometers] between objects) so there isn’t much to avoid.
What is the distance between the asteroid belt and Earth?
What is the distance between Mars and the asteroid belt?
3.2 Astronomical Units
The asteroid belt is between the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is located about 2.2 to 3.2 Astronomical Units (AU) from the Sun. That is somewhere between 329-478 million km away. The asteroid belt is huge and the space between each of the asteroids is over 600,000 miles.