Asteroid Belt in 3D
The asteroid belt is a ring of rocky bodies orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. In 3D you can see its true shape — and how surprisingly empty it really is.
What is the asteroid belt?
It holds millions of rocky objects, but their combined mass is less than the Moon’s. Jupiter’s gravity stirred this region so much that the material never gathered into a planet. The largest body, Ceres, is classified as a dwarf planet.
It is mostly empty
Films show spaceships dodging tumbling rocks, but the average distance between belt asteroids is hundreds of thousands of kilometres. Every spacecraft that has crossed the belt did so without incident.