The asteroid belt, containing 98.5% of known asteroids, is stable due to gravitational interactions between the Sun and Jupiter. It is relatively sparse and could be a source of resources. The belt will never merge into a planet due to constant collisions and the dust produced creates zodiacal light.
The asteroid belt contains 98.5% of the solar system’s known asteroids, extending from about 2 astronomical units (AU, or Earth-Sun distance) to 3.3 AU from the Sun. It contains between 700,000 and 1.7 million asteroids over 1 km in diameter, but its total mass is only about 4% of the Moon. The asteroid belt contains a 900 km diameter dwarf planet, Ceres, and three large asteroids, Vesta, Pallas and Hygeia, with an average diameter of 450 km. These bodies collectively make up half the mass of the asteroid belt.
The asteroid belt exists because the orbits are extremely stable, determined mainly by the gravitational interactions between the Sun and Jupiter. The remaining majority of the protoplanetary disk either became planets, fell into the Sun, or was ejected into eccentric orbits as comets. Another stable area is the Kuiper belt, located outside the orbit of Neptune, safe from being swept up by the gas giants.
Contrary to representations in fiction, the asteroid belt appears relatively sparse up close. Numerous unmanned spacecraft have passed through it without a single noticeable collision. However, any long-term colony would likely require slightly stronger shielding than usual. The asteroid belt could also be a huge source of resources in the future. The carbonaceous, silicate and metallic asteroids found there would be worth many trillions of dollars at current prices, if they could be put to use.
Due to Jupiter’s gravitational churning, the asteroid belt will never merge into a planetary body. If that had happened, he would have done it a long time ago. The constant mutual collisions of the asteroid belt bodies cause them to collapse faster than they aggregate. The dust from these collisions has too little mass to remain in a stable solar orbit and slowly spirals down into the sun over 700,000 years, producing the faint glow in the dark night skies known as zodiacal light.
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