Why asteroid belt between Mars, Jupiter is important for us
The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is slowly losing mass, and scientists say this fading rock zone holds clues to Earth's and the Moon's wild past.
Thanks to constant collisions (mostly because of Jupiter's gravity), the belt never formed into a planet—now it has just 3% of the Moon's mass.
How much mass does the belt lose?
Researchers led by Julio Fernandez found that about 0.0088% of the belt's material disappears.
Around 20% escapes as asteroids or meteoroids that sometimes cross Earth's path; the rest turns into dust, lighting up our skies as zodiacal light.
Turns out, 3.5 billion years ago this belt contained 50% more mass—explaining why Earth and the Moon got hit a lot more back then.
Why is this research important?
Tracking these changes helps scientists piece together how our planet evolved—and spot future risks from space rocks heading our way.
Big asteroids like Ceres and Vesta aren't part of these stats anymore since they don't lose much mass now, but what remains keeps shaping our cosmic neighborhood.