Labels:text | screenshot OCR: ASTEROID COLLISIONS BEFORE AFTER AROUND 4.6 BILLION years ago, the asteroid belt was about 1,200 times Asteroid family more massive than it is today. The belt at that time included many hundreds of objects larger than Ceres (the largest-known asteroid today). When these objects collided, Jupiter's gravity prevented them from sticking together to form a planet; instead, they tended to split into smaller pieces. Many of these spread around the Solar System, cratering the rocky planets and moons or falling into the Sun. FAMILY A high-energy impact fragments a large asteroid. The pieces are driven apart but follow similar orbits. CRATERS FRAGMENTED FAMILY FACT ASTEROID FILE
