The main asteroid belt of our solar system is slowly disappearing

The main asteroid belt in our solar system is located between Mars and Jupiter. And although it is considered to be the most stable element, this could well change. Indeed, it seems to be slowly disappearing, which would have numerous consequences.

It is important to note that this structure was supposed to form a planet during the formation of the solar system. However, this did not happen because Jupiter exerted too much gravity for this planet to form. And although this asteroid belt is massive, it is gradually losing mass.

Thus, a team of scientists from the astronomy department at the Universidad de la República in Uruguay wanted to find out how quickly this structure was disappearing. And after performing various calculations, the astronomers estimated that this asteroid belt loses 0,0088% of its active mass per million years.

Going into more detail, there are two main reasons that explain this phenomenon. It must be said that 80% of asteroids collide with each other and are transformed into dust under the force of the impact. As for the others, they are ejected towards regions of the solar system where gravity is unstable, but also towards certain planets such as Earth, Mercury, Mars or Jupiter.

But the gradual disappearance of the asteroid belt could also reduce the risk of collisions between celestial bodies and planets such as Earth. However, this phenomenon is occurring very slowly, and it will take millions of years for the belt to disappear completely.