Today, it's mostly thought by astronomers that the asteroid belt between Mars   
   and Venus is not a shattered planet, but rather a planet that never fully came   
   together, probably because of the influence of Jupiter and possibly Saturn.    
   But in Golden Age SF,   
    the shattered Fifth Planet was a staple.   
      
   One thing occurs to me to wonder:  suppose some force _had_ shattered a world   
   into asteroidal rubble in the Deep Past.  How would the results look different   
   than the actual asteroid belt in today's times?  How would they look different?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)