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The families are partially made by the collisions of asteroids already there or by the breakup of existing asteroids. No on seems to be saying if the present mass of the Main Asteroid Belt is increasing or decreasing. The Main Asteroid Belt could be similar to the rings of Saturn.
Asteroid Families in Main Asteroid Belt based on age
The study used a different sorting method that locates young asteroid families less than 20 million years old. They found 4 families less than 7 million years old. The age range of all the families ranges from a few million years to 4 billion years.
Asteroid Belts fall into dying stars changing their compositions
The asteroids are sorted out by composition and the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter. It forms a complex pattern that is changing over time. There are empty areas and more dense areas based on orbital resonances of Jupiter. The movement of the larger asteroids also clears out areas and piles them up in other places. The organic material is closer to Jupiter. Metals in the middle and metal ores are closer to Mars. At the outer edge there could be large dirt covered ice chunks floating around.
The formation of the belt has several possibilities. One idea has Jupiter and Saturn moving closer to the Sun during early formation, then moving back out, scattering and reforming the debris that had collected there. Another idea has the zone starting out empty slowly filling up with material lost from the planets as they were forming. A third idea is that originally there was a enough material to make a planet but it was just about all washed away by various forces out into the outer parts of the solar system.
Asteroid Families in Main Asteroid Belt based on age
The study used a different sorting method that locates young asteroid families less than 20 million years old. They found 4 families less than 7 million years old. The age range of all the families ranges from a few million years to 4 billion years.
Asteroid Belts fall into dying stars changing their compositions
The asteroids are sorted out by composition and the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter. It forms a complex pattern that is changing over time. There are empty areas and more dense areas based on orbital resonances of Jupiter. The movement of the larger asteroids also clears out areas and piles them up in other places. The organic material is closer to Jupiter. Metals in the middle and metal ores are closer to Mars. At the outer edge there could be large dirt covered ice chunks floating around.
The formation of the belt has several possibilities. One idea has Jupiter and Saturn moving closer to the Sun during early formation, then moving back out, scattering and reforming the debris that had collected there. Another idea has the zone starting out empty slowly filling up with material lost from the planets as they were forming. A third idea is that originally there was a enough material to make a planet but it was just about all washed away by various forces out into the outer parts of the solar system.
