- #1
redwood973
- 15
- 0
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Steve, I'm 37 and from a small town called Fort Dodge in Iowa (USA). I have no formal education in Astronomy, but have always loved the topic since I was a child (most likely due to having a cousin who was an engineer for NASA who would send me photos and trinkets in the mail from time to time).
I stumbled upon your forum this afternoon and have been enjoying reading many of the threads since finding my way here . My interests will limit my reading and participation to this General Astronomy section of the forum. I may not be able to contribute much to your group, but I will defiantly be stopping by and reading the threads (a lurker, I believe it’s called).
Through my wondering around here I found myself wondering about the asteroid belt and the gas giants. I believe the accepted theory of the belts formation was the inability of the mass present in the belt to form a planetary body due to the effects of Jupiter’s gravity.
Now I was wondering–if Jupiter where much smaller than its actual 318 Earth masses, say closer to Saturn 95 Earth masses, would there still be an asteroid belt, or would we have another terrestrial planet?
Since Uranus (14 Earth masses) and Neptune (17 Earth masses) are considerably smaller, is it a given that there would be another terrestrial planet occupying the orbit of what would have been the asteroid belt if Jupiter were of their mass rather than the 318 it is?
I look forward to your thoughts on this topic.
My name is Steve, I'm 37 and from a small town called Fort Dodge in Iowa (USA). I have no formal education in Astronomy, but have always loved the topic since I was a child (most likely due to having a cousin who was an engineer for NASA who would send me photos and trinkets in the mail from time to time).
I stumbled upon your forum this afternoon and have been enjoying reading many of the threads since finding my way here . My interests will limit my reading and participation to this General Astronomy section of the forum. I may not be able to contribute much to your group, but I will defiantly be stopping by and reading the threads (a lurker, I believe it’s called).
Through my wondering around here I found myself wondering about the asteroid belt and the gas giants. I believe the accepted theory of the belts formation was the inability of the mass present in the belt to form a planetary body due to the effects of Jupiter’s gravity.
Now I was wondering–if Jupiter where much smaller than its actual 318 Earth masses, say closer to Saturn 95 Earth masses, would there still be an asteroid belt, or would we have another terrestrial planet?
Since Uranus (14 Earth masses) and Neptune (17 Earth masses) are considerably smaller, is it a given that there would be another terrestrial planet occupying the orbit of what would have been the asteroid belt if Jupiter were of their mass rather than the 318 it is?
I look forward to your thoughts on this topic.