Astronomy
Exploring the Asteroid Belt Between Mars and Jupiter
Quick fact
The total mass of all asteroids in the main belt is less than 4% of the Moon's mass, and the average distance between them is over 600,000 miles—far from the crowded collisions depicted on screen.
Why this is interesting
You've seen the asteroid belt in movies as a dense field of rocks, but the reality is far more surprising—and emptier—than fiction suggests.