Ziggy, if all of the asteroids from the asteroid belt were added togeather, the mass would not be much more than about 1/2 the moon. There is a link to solstation.com in the Resources on the Web topic, try going to that site and follow the links to the asteroid section to review this subject.

As for the asteroid belt having any influence on the giant planets, the answer is no. There simply isn't enough mass in all of the asteroids combined to have any influence on those huge planets.

Remember that Jupiter is bigger than all of the other objects in the solar system (except the sun) combined.

And no Starlab, removing all of the asteroids in the asteroid belt wouldn't have any noticable affect on any of the other planets.

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All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.~ Carl Sagan ~

Humanity must rise above the Earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only then will we fully understand the world in which we live.~Socrates, 500 B.C. ~

Let every man judge according to his own standards, by what he has himself read, not by what others tell him. ~Albert Einstein~