This huge cluster of stone bodies could once become a planet, but the strong gravity of Jupiter prevented this, because due to constant clashes, the wreckage did not unite, but collapsed. Today, the mass of the belt is about 3% of the mass of the moon, and it is stretched by millions of kilometers.
Understanding the process of loss of mass with a belt of asteroids is important and directly affects the evolution of the Earth, the newspaper writes. Large bodies that leave the belt do not just disappear in space, some of them ultimately fall into the inside of the solar system, where they become potential objects of collision with the ground.
Scientists have calculated that the belt loses about 0.0088% of the active substance at every moment in time. Jupiter continues to have a significant influence on losses – its gravity violates the orbit of asteroids. Some are thrown into the inside of the solar system and sometimes encounter the ground (about 20%), others go to the orbit of Jupiter. Those that remain (about 80%) gradually destroy and turn into meteorite dust, which creates a zodiac glow in the sky.
Large asteroids like Ceres and Vesta were not included in the study, as they are quite stable.
The calculations show that 3.5 billion years ago, the belt was almost twice as massive, and the bombing of the Earth and the Moon asteroids occurred much more often. This coincides with the geological data of the Earth. Today, the flow of fragments has significantly decreased, but it was he who largely formed the past of the Earth and remains an important factor for assessing future space risks, the publication said.
