AETHERION LEARN
Small Worlds: Dwarf Planets, Asteroids and Comets · Lesson 61 · Teacher license

Inside the Asteroid Belt

Students discover that the asteroid belt is mostly empty space, learn how Jupiter's gravity kept a planet from forming there and carved the Kirkwood gaps, and compare rocky, metallic and carbon-rich asteroids by visiting Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Psyche.

Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops9 stops

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What students will see and do

Students view the solar system from above, then fly to Mars, Jupiter, back above the belt, and into the belt to Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Psyche before ending at Earth. Aetherion pauses for discussion at Mars (movie asteroid fields versus the real, mostly empty belt), above the solar system (how resonance with Jupiter clears the Kirkwood gaps, using a swing analogy) and at Psyche (what a metal-rich asteroid could teach about planetary cores).

Learning objectives

NGSS connections

MS-ESS1-2Students explain how Jupiter's gravity shapes the asteroid belt, including orbital resonances that clear the Kirkwood gaps.
MS-ESS1-3Students compare the sizes, compositions and spacing of asteroids and relate them to the scale of the solar system.

Stops on this journey

  1. A Ring Around the Sun
  2. Emptier Than You Think (discussion stop)
  3. Jupiter in Charge
  4. The Kirkwood Gaps (discussion stop)
  5. Ceres, the Giant of the Belt
  6. Vesta, the Bright Rock
  7. Pallas and the Asteroid Families
  8. Psyche, a World of Metal (discussion stop)
  9. Pieces of the Belt at Home

Vocabulary