Formation of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is traditionally assumed to have occurred primordially when a group of planetesimals formed protoplanets that, through gravitational perturbations from Jupiter, were imbued with too much orbital energy to accrete into a planet, until violent collisions shattered most of the protoplanets, thereby forming the asteroid belt. Electric Universe theory contends there was an electrical discharge interaction on a planetary scale when a planetesimal closely encountered Mars, causing not only Mars’ material to be ejected, but also disintegrated much, if not all, of the planetesimal. The ejected debris eventually formed the asteroid belt; and possibly Valle Marineris which scars nearly 20% of Mars’ circumference, is the ‘smoking gun.” Here I examine not the electrical discharge phenomena, but crudely estimate whether or not the total mass of the belt could have arisen from such an interaction.
