Main Asteroid Belt (Sol)

Asteroid belt – Main Belt

Union - Region - Sol System - 1.7 Million Objects - (of 1000 m or larger) - Occupied - MABA Association

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The asteroid belt is the region of the Sol System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets. The asteroid belt is also termed the main asteroid belt or main belt to distinguish its members from other asteroids in the Solar System such as near-Earth asteroids and Trojan asteroids. About half the mass of the belt is contained in the four largest asteroids, Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea. These have mean diameters of more than 400 km, while Ceres, the asteroid belt's only dwarf planet, is about 950 km in diameter. The remaining bodies range down to the size of a dust particle. The asteroid material is so thinly distributed that numerous unmanned spacecraft have traversed it without incident. Nonetheless, collisions between large asteroids do occur, and these can form an asteroid family whose members have similar orbital characteristics and compositions. Nesvorny and Jenniskens  attributed 85 percent of the Zodiacal Light dust to fragmentation of Jupiter-family comets, rather than from comets and collisions between asteroids in the asteroid belt. It was once thought that collisions of asteroids produce a fine dust that forms a major component of the zodiacal light. Individual asteroids within the asteroid belt are categorized by their spectra, with most falling into three basic groups: carbonaceous (C-type), silicate (S-type), and metal-rich (M-type).

The asteroid belt formed from the primordial solar nebula as a group of planetesimals, the smaller precursors of the planets, which in turn formed protoplanets. Between Mars and Jupiter, however, gravitational perturbations from the giant planet imbued the protoplanets with too much orbital energy for them to accrete into a planet. Collisions became too violent, and instead of fusing together, the planetesimals and most of the protoplanets shattered. As a result, most of the asteroid belt's mass has been lost since the formation of the Solar System. Some fragments can eventually find their way into the inner Solar System, leading to meteorite impacts with the inner planets. Asteroid orbits continue to be appreciably perturbed whenever their period of revolution about the Sun forms an orbital resonance with Jupiter. At these orbital distances, a Kirkwood gap occurs as they are swept into other orbits.

Classes of small Solar System bodies in other regions include the centaurs, Kuiper belt and scattered disk objects, and Oort cloud comets.

Characteristics
Contrary to popular imagery, the asteroid belt is mostly empty. The asteroids are spread over such a large volume that it would be improbable to reach an asteroid without aiming carefully. Nonetheless, hundreds of thousands of asteroids are currently known, and the total number ranges in the millions or more, depending on the lower size cutoff. Over 200 asteroids are known to be larger than 100 km, while a survey in the infrared wavelengths shows that the asteroid belt has about 1.7 million asteroids with a diameter of 1 km or more.

The four largest objects, Ceres, 4 Vesta, 2 Pallas, and 10 Hygiea, account for half of the belt's total mass, with almost one-third accounted for by Ceres alone.

RECENT HISTORY
The Asteroid Belt was a major source of Minerals and metals needed by the explosive growth of United Earth. The metal and mineral mining aspect has strongly declined since 2200. But almost all Asteroids (that are still there and have not been  used up) ( still over 1,200,000 Asteroids) are still occupied either by Company Headquarters, Shroom Farms  or extravagant family residences by rich Solarians ( As the residents of the Asteroid Belts and the Oort Cloud are called. Approximate 120 Million residents live and work in the Asteroid Belt (not counting Ceres, Vesta, Pallas etc) . Ceres and Vesta are major Traffic Hub Connections to the individual Asteroids. Almost all asteroids are claimed and there is an active Real Estate market. Asteroids of 500 meters diameter and more can go for many millions of credits. Even smaller Objects starting at 50 meters diameter are traded, bought and sold. SII and DeNoir operate Scooper ships collecting the small asteroids and dust. It is predicted that the famous Zodiac Light will cease to shine in another 500-1000 years when all Solar Dust has been collected. The Main Asteroid Belt Association is head quartered at Pallas and both residents and companies belong to to that Association (Club Members) The MABA is headed by an elected Association Council and represented at the Assembly by an elected Rep. Laws are Union plus local laws (mostly governing privacy and traffic) Privacy is a big issue and many private Asteroids have a No Scan and No uninvited approach Policy which is vigorously enforced by the Private Security Firm MABA- Security.

Rumors and stories tell about exclusive Restaurants and Clubs all across the Asteroid Belt catering to very exotic tastes and excesses.

See: Hildas, Trojans and Greeks