Asteroid Belts
Asteroid belts are areas in space where there is an accumulation of asteroids. Asteroid belts are often found in orbit and often accumulate at Lagrange points. Fictional asteroid belts are often the sites of hidden fleets, hidden bases, and hidden moons. There may be off-world mines near or within asteroid belts. Unlike real asteroid belts, fictional asteroid belts are often densely packed and a dangerous navigational hazard to anyone piloting a spaceship through. Asteroid belts are home to space pirates, invading fleets, and space leviathans.
| Synonyms: asteroid fields |
| Example Mythonyms: the Outer Belt, the Trojans |
| Places |
Designing Fictional Asteroid Belts
Archetypes
Overview
Fictional asteroid belts often are a navigational hazard, and spaceships passing through them must fly carefully lest be destroyed. There may be hidden routes through these areas. Asteroid fields are often also the sites of hidden fleets, hidden bases, and hidden moons. They may be in the location of a destroyed planet or shattered planet.
Asteroid Belts or Asteroid Fields
The terms asteroid belts and asteroids fields are often used interchangeably in fictional works. While ‘asteroid belt’ invokes the idea of an arrangement of asteroids in orbit around a larger celestial body, ‘asteroid field’ is often used to describe any fictional clustering of asteroids (which often do not obey any laws of celestial orbital mechanics and more often simply exist as a navigational obstacle).
While designers of space soap operas may use both terms (or even favor asteroid field for its’ brutal simplicity), designers of hard science fiction worlds may wish to use the term asteroid belt and give more thought to their placement within a fictional solar system.
In both cases, fictional asteroid belts and asteroid fields, the asteroids are often portrayed as far more concentrated and densely packed than in reality.
Lagrange point: a point in space relative to two orbiting bodies where the gravitational forces can hold an object in that same relative position. Lagrange points are widely thought of as being perfect locations for space stations and are often the sites of asteroid accumulation.
Asteroid Belts of Our Own Solar System
Asteroids in our own solar system are also divided into 3 types based on location: Main Belt Asteroids, Trojans, and Near-Earth Asteroids.
- Main Belt Asteroids: The main asteroid belt is a ring-shaped collection of asteroids encircling the sun between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. It is home to between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids. The largest four asteroids at this location are Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea.
- Trojans: The trojans are a collection of asteroids that occupy the L4 and L5 Lagrange points of Jupiter. Generally, the asteroids at the L4 Lagrange point are all named after Greek heroes of the Trojan War and are referred to as the Greek Camp, while the asteroids at Jupiter’s L5 Lagrange point are named after Trojan heroes and are referred to as the Trojan Camp. There are two exceptions to this nomenclature: Hektor is a Trojan hero and asteroid that exists in the Greek Camp at L4, and Patroclus is a Greek hero and asteroid that exists in the Trojan Camp at L5. They were named before the Greek/Trojan camp rule was established and astronomers refer to them as ‘spies.’ Somewhat confusingly, asteroids of both the Trojan camp and the Greek camp are considered Trojan asteroids, and asteroids trapped at the Lagrange points of other celestial bodies may also be called trojans (for example, Mars’ Trojans).
- Near Earth Asteroids: near earth asteroids are asteroids that either cross, or come near to Earth’s orbit. It is these asteroids that poise the greatest threat to our planet.
