Asteroid belt

This article contains information about the Asteroid belt as it relates to Nationstates. For more general information, please see the Wikipedia article on the subject.

The asteroid belt is a region of the solar system falling roughly between the planets Mars and Jupiter. It contains the highest concentration of asteroid orbits in the solar system. There are comparatively few permanent settlements in the asteroid belt - rather less than ten billion inhabitants, with Tannelorn being the only entity that has the majority of its population located there -, however, mining is fairly extensive (Presumably due to fractal occurances enabling a steady resupply of asteroids).

It is termed the main belt when contrasted with other concentrations of minor planets, since these may also be termed asteroid belts. In this usage, it often refers only to the greatest concentration of bodies with semi-major axes between the 1:4 and 2:1 Kirkwood gaps at 2.06 and 3.27 AU, with eccentricities less than about 0.33, and with inclinations below about 20°. By this definition, the asteroid belt contains 93.4% of all known minor planets in the solar system.

The asteroid belt contains a number of comets. Some scientists believe these comets might have been the ultimate source for Earth's water supply.