Between the trajectories of Mars and Jupiter is the asteroid belt – a large round of the remaining stones after forming the solar system. These bodies did not consolidate the planet due to the strong appeal of Jupiter, continuing to affect their movement today. But this belt is slow but certainly disappears.
Due to the gravity of the large planets, part of the asteroids are thrown out of the belt or towards the solar system. The rest collided with each other, turning into dust. Scientists believe this is how the asteroid belt gradually lost weight.
A new study under the leadership of astronomer Hulio Fernandez from the University of the Republic (Uruguay) showed that the positive part of the belt lost about 0.0088% of the mass of millions of years. This is a bit, but over billions of years, the loss becomes significant. According to calculations, about 3.5 billion years ago, the belt was about 50% larger and the loss rate was twice as higher.
Scientists note that the belt will not completely disappear – it is likely, it will destroy the death of the sun after 5 billion years.
