Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Asteroids in fiction" in English language version.
Within weeks of his discovery, Olbers had an explanation for why there were two planets in the same orbit. [...] Olbers fleshed out the idea in a letter to William Herschel on May 17, 1802
The "science" in science-fiction of the Gernsback period was not wholly borrowed from the outside world. Some concepts were created on a mythical level. [...] Particularly interesting is the establishment of "Bodia" (according to one cosmology of the day, a former fifth planet whose destruction formed the asteroids) as the ultimate origin of mankind and possessor of a supercivilization.
Bode's Fifth Planet, "Bodia." (A hypothetical planet between Mars and Jupiter that broke up to form the asteroid belt. It is usually fictionally considered as Earth-like, with a human population.)
One important series of interrelated stories was the "Hills of Space" sequence, dealing with the colonization of the asteroids by outcasts from earth. This series began with "Incommunicado" (1950) and extended through several stories to "The Gambling Hell and the Sinful Girl" (1975).