Quote:
Originally Posted by pghnative
Perhaps, then, you can easily explain (using numberic specifications and real data) why they are belts.
It seems to me that once to start trying to put numbers on how wide the "orbit cleared" zone must be, and on what % mass needs to be cleared, that you start to have problems fitting Earth in and excluding (for example) Ceres.
This kinda looks to me like the infamous pornography definition: "I'll know it when I see it."
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Why are they belts? I think it's so obvious that it didn't need any explanation. You can start looking in Wikipedia and then move to any other books on the Solar System.
You can find thousands of asteroids in Earth's orbital zone but first, their mass is only a tiny fraction of Earth's, and second, their origin and composition are unrelated to Earth's, unlike the asteroid belt, where most bodies, including Ceres, share a common origin. Finally, like in Neptune's case, Earth has gravitational domination over its zone, unlike Ceres or Pluto.