Could this maybe have caused the asteroid belt?

Question

ive been ready about the asteroid belt and thought it might have been a planet that was shattered , According to wikipedia , the mass of all the rocks put together would equal only 4% of our moons surface and thus it is left over rocks that were unable to form a planet becuase of the Gravitational pull of jupiter. Is it possible that it could have been a planet that was stuck with a giant asteriod shattering it into millions of peices, the Speed and size of the meteroite or asteriod was so great that most of the peices of that planets were shot out into the depths of space but only a few peices were caught within the sun and jupiters gravitaty. maybe a peice or peices showered earth killing the dinasoears as is theorised by many Scientists 65 million years ago , does this seem plausiable or to far fetched ? , please if u think the latter explain your reasoning

Answer 1

The shattered planet theory for the formation of the asteroid belt is possible. But it is more likely, that there was never a planet forming at this place. The asteroid belt is kept stable by resonances with Jupiter and Mars, and that already for a very long time. There is currently more evidence for the theory, that under such conditions, planets cannot form.

And it very likely never caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

A better theory is based on the large amount of chromium inside the impactor, that a collision in the asteroid belt created a family of asteroids, which impacted on Earth and Moon, causing the C-T event and Tycho crater on the moon.

But the original asteroids had been no planets - or even protoplanets. The largest known fragment today, 298 Baptistina is only 13-30 km large.

So, I think it is far fetched, yes.

EDIT: Corrected myself - it was only a comet in the minimal size case.

Answer 2

I have heard that it is the remains of a planet that shattered due to the rule of inverse squares.  I also heard that the majority passed through the planetary orbits of earth venus and mercury to end up in the sun, but came so close to Venus, that it caused the plants rotation to change to the opposite direction.  I think it was Immanuel Velikovsky who put the idea forward

Answer 3

Asteroids are material left over from the formation of the solar system. One theory suggests that they are the remains of a planet that was destroyed in a massive collision long ago. More likely, asteroids are material that never coalesced into a planet. In fact, if the estimated total mass of all asteroids was gathered into a single object, the object would be less than 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) across -- less than half the diameter of our Moon.  

Answer 4

No.  For an asteroid to be large enough to "shatter" a planet is a bit far-fetched.  Planets don't really shatter anyway, rather, they just break up into chunks.

It is indeed most likely that it was just leftover material that didn't become a planet.  Some scientists say some material from the Belt was used to make Jupiter's very thin ring.

In any case, a planet that's only 4% the size of our moon isn't possible.  It would be too small.  It would be named a dwarf planet, if the small amount of material had even the possibility of making such a small dwarf planet.

Answer 5

Yes it could be possible . That does not make it fact.

Answer 6

I doubt it. The gravitational influence of Jupiter on the asteroid belt is too well established. It makes it virtually impossible for a planet to have been formed there in the first place. There are a great number of resonances of Jupiter's 12 year period with periods of asteroids. This creates empty regions (the Kirkwood gaps) which impossible to cross. The resulting permissible zones are small and contain very little mass each.

There is a second reason as well. As you know the first four planets are rocky and small. This is so because the solar heat evaporates and pushes away water out of a zone up to and including the asteroids.  Therefore the belt region is depleted both by this effect and the gravitional effect of the gas giants.