Why is the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter?
The asteroid belt is a failed planet, the material on that orbit never managed to clump together into a planet because jupiter’s gravity kept the material stirred up, every time Jupiter passes the material that’s trying to coagulate is pulled outwards again, and the result is a belt of asteroids. Jupiter can also rattle some of these asteroids loose and send them flying around the solar system for a time. most are very small, but at least one is large enough to have become spherical under its own gravity.
