WHAT IS THE ASTEROID BELT?

                          WHAT IS THE ASTEROID BELT? 

The asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, is a wide belt of material orbiting the 61 sun that contains perhaps millions of asteroids. Ceres, an asteroid recently upgraded to a dwarf planet, is also found here. These asteroids are spread out over such a large swath  of space that a  spacecraft traveling through the belt would rarely encounter  one. They tend to collect in orbit orbiting groups  separated from one another by significant gaps, called Kirkwood gaps, which are caused by the gravitational pull of Jupiter. Jupiter's gravity occasionally pulls an out over such a large swath spacecraft traveling en- asteroid out of orbit and sends it hurtling to the sun. A rare asteroid veers out of the belt and rockets to Earth.