asteroid belt
8
3.5
- noun
- /ˈæstərɔɪd bɛlt/
:
cinturón de asteroides
- The seven of them were NASA's pride, returning from the first crewed expedition to the asteroid belt.
- the main asteroid belt
- the asteroid belt between Mars
But, but yeah, we will take materials from the moon and from near Earth objects and from the asteroid belt and so on.
- But, but yeah, we will take materials from the moon and from near Earth objects and from the asteroid belt and so on.
- So you and the asteroid belt is way closer than the Kuiper belt.
- On the moon you go to Mars for for lunch, and then you go to the asteroid belt in the afternoon for tea, and then you come back to Earth that evening.
- And they now we have these fragments, we think fragments floating around the asteroid belt that are like bits of mantle, bits of core, bits of Crest, basically.
Examples
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The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter contains millions of rocky bodies orbiting the Sun.
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The majority lie in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Blog text (16) -
Next stop, the Asteroid Belt!
Fiction book (2001) -
The enormous collision formed the planet Earth, the asteroid belt, and the Moon.
Blog text (5) -
The vast majority of those asteroids lay in the asteroid belt.
Blog text (10) -
In addition, the asteroid belt contains many orbital structures due to Jupiter's influence.
Academic text (2003) -
The Lewis and Clark just returned from patrol in the asteroid belt; she's docked in bay four.
Fiction book (1997) -
Past the asteroid belt, the character of the planets changes: large planets with thick atmospheres, many moons, and ring systems.
Academic text (2004) -
Stone says Pioneer had proved that human-built probes could pass through the asteroid belt and into the domain of the outer planets.
Academic text (2007) -
Grit from the asteroid belt had wormed its way into the works on the comm antenna and the radio telescope.
Fiction book (1999)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a band or region of asteroids' is directly derivable from combining 'asteroid' (small body orbiting the Sun) with 'belt' (a band or zone), so the compound literally denotes a belt of asteroids. This noun+noun composition is a common, cross-linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Asteroid belt comes from a simple picture: many small rocky asteroids travel together in a wide ring or belt around the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. So today asteroid belt means 'the ring of asteroids' in that part of the Solar System.