What is the name of the belt of rocky bodies located between Mars and Jupiter?

Study for the Earth Science Standards of Learning Test. Use flashcards and multiple choice questions, with hints and explanations for each question. Prepare for your exam efficiently!

Multiple Choice

What is the name of the belt of rocky bodies located between Mars and Jupiter?

Explanation:
Between Mars and Jupiter lies a belt of rocky bodies. This collection, called the asteroid belt, is made up of rocky and metallic fragments leftover from the early solar system. Jupiter’s strong gravity prevented these materials from accreting into a planet, so they stayed as many small bodies rather than forming a single world. Some objects in the belt are relatively large, like Ceres, which is classified as a dwarf planet. This belt differs from others: the Kuiper Belt is beyond Neptune and is composed mainly of icy bodies; the Oort Cloud is a distant, spherical shell of icy objects far from the Sun; the Zodiacal Cloud is a diffuse cloud of dust along the Sun’s orbital plane.

Between Mars and Jupiter lies a belt of rocky bodies. This collection, called the asteroid belt, is made up of rocky and metallic fragments leftover from the early solar system. Jupiter’s strong gravity prevented these materials from accreting into a planet, so they stayed as many small bodies rather than forming a single world. Some objects in the belt are relatively large, like Ceres, which is classified as a dwarf planet. This belt differs from others: the Kuiper Belt is beyond Neptune and is composed mainly of icy bodies; the Oort Cloud is a distant, spherical shell of icy objects far from the Sun; the Zodiacal Cloud is a diffuse cloud of dust along the Sun’s orbital plane.

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