HUMANS could live on giant orbs floating in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter within the next 15 years.

That's the bonkers claim made by top scientist Pekka Janhunen, who says millions of people could inhabit a megacity in space by 2026.

Dr Janhunen, an astrophysicist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki, described his vision in a research paper published this month.

He laid out the blueprint for floating "mega-satellites" around the dwarf planet Ceres, which lies roughly 325million miles (520million km) from Earth.

"The motivation is to have a settlement with artificial gravity that allows growth beyond Earth's living area," Dr Janhunen wrote.

The vast majority of plots to settle distant worlds revolve around the Moon or Mars. This is largely due to their close proximity to Earth.