main belt

English

main belt in white

Alternative forms

• Main Belt, main asteroid belt, Main Asteroid Belt

Proper noun

main belt

1. (astronomy) Synonym of asteroid belt; the main asteroid belt in the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter.

   Coordinate term: Kuiper belt

   • 2002, Edward C. Blair, Asteroids: Overview, Abstracts, and Bibliography, Nova Publishers, →ISBN, page 15:

     Dr. Witt suspected a highly eccentric orbit, enabling this asteroid to travel outside the main belt. He found that the majority of the asteroid's orbit was within that of Mars and named it Eros.

   • 2008, O. Richard Norton, Lawrence Chitwood, Field Guide to Meteors and Meteorites, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 28:

     Such collisions may be the mechanism that sends fragments across the asteroid belt toward Earth and the terrestrial planets. If they survive passage through the main belt they may eventually establish elliptical orbits among the inner planets.

Noun

main belt (plural main belts)

1. (nautical, military) The primary belt of armor protecting the sides of a warship above and slightly below the waterline.

Further reading

• asteroid belt on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• bailment, bimental, libament, mintable