30/08/2026
Situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, the Asteroid Belt is a region populated by millions of rocky and metallic remnants from the solar system's formation. Contrary to sci-fi depictions, it is largely empty space; the asteroids are so widely scattered that spacecraft can pass through without incident. The largest object, the dwarf planet Ceres, accounts for a third of the belt's total mass. These bodies are primordial planetesimals that never coalesced into a larger planet, preserved by Jupiter's disruptive gravity for billions of years.
