asteroid belt
nounDefinition of asteroid belt
: the region of interplanetary space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in which most asteroids are found
Examples of asteroid belt in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Orbital modeling of its atmospheric trajectories concluded an 83% probability that the Tunguska object followed an asteroid-like trajectory and may have come from the asteroid belt. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "New research on Tunguska finds such events happen less often than we thought," 17 July 2019 Try hunting down the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest rock in the main asteroid belt. — Andrew Fazekas, National Geographic, "Famous meteors peak, and more top stargazing events in May," 1 May 2019 Bennu is also older than expected, between 100 million and 1 billion years old, and probably originated in the main asteroid belt. — Ashley Strickland, CNN, "A NASA mission's delicate dance to collect samples from a rugged asteroid," 13 Aug. 2019 Its robotic explorers headed farther out, exploring Mars more intensely, as well as the asteroid belt and the solar system’s outer worlds. — Kenneth Chang, New York Times, "Why Everyone Wants to Go Back to the Moon," 12 July 2019 That’s the minor planet, or asteroid -- located on the lengthy asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter -- that recently was named for South Euclid and Lyndhurst, thanks to the efforts of Jay Haarburger. — cleveland.com, "Asteroid 1999JH1 now renamed for South Euclid-Lyndhurst area," 19 July 2019 The spacecraft will attempt to return a sample from that asteroid back to Earth before exploring a comet in the asteroid belt. — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, "China Is Sending a Spacecraft to Visit Our Nearest Asteroid Neighbor," 2 May 2019 The capsule could remain in an orbit around the asteroid belt, be demolished by an asteroid, or continue into deep space. — Don Reisinger, Fortune, "Elon Musk's Tesla Missed Mars Orbit After Successful Falcon Heavy Launch," 7 Feb. 2018 Which brings us to Ceres, a dwarf planet that is the largest body in the asteroid belt. — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "Ice volcanoes have likely been erupting for billions of years on Ceres," 18 Sep. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'asteroid belt.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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