HOW DIFFICULT WOULD IT BE TO FLY THROUGH THE ASTEROID BELT?

In the 1980 film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo and friends try to escape pursuing imperial forces by flying through an asteroid field. Droid C-3PO remarks, "the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1". The scene depicts a chaotic, dense field of rocks swirling and spinning through space. This scenario has been played out many times in the cinema.

- Dr Alastair Gunn

SUZANNE BAXTER, CORNWALL

But the reality is very different, at least for the asteroid belt in our Solar System. Based on our knowledge of the volume of the asteroid belt, and an estimate of the number (and size) of asteroids, astronomers think that the average distance between asteroids is almost 1 million kilometres. So, the gaps between asteroids are vast enough that it's an easy task to navigate between them.