In fact, it looks like the Solar System might be rare and special when it comes to perfectly-sized asteroid belts. They found that only a fraction of the planetary systems out there have giant planets at the right locations to help create an asteroid belt of the right size. The researchers created a series of theoretical models based on observations of debris disks around other stars, as well as the Jupiter-sized planets discovered so far. This conclusion comes from Rebecca Martin, a NASA Sagan Fellow from the University of Colorado in Boulder and Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. Life never gets that opportunity to really shake things up and evolve into more complex forms. Too few asteroids, and complex life might not get the raw material it needs to get rolling. Too many asteroids, and you’ve got an unrelenting cosmic shooting gallery, raining fiery death from above.

But asteroids might also help seed a planet with the right ingredients to set up the conditions for life, and give that life encouragement to evolve more complex survival strategies.Īs with all things, it’s just about balance.

Sure, asteroids can be planetary annihilators, scouring the surface of a world with fire and molten rock. An artist’s impression of the different configurations of asteroid belts that could occur.

Endless space 2 depleted planet