Explain the phenomenon of Kirkwood gaps. Where can they occur?
What will be an ideal response?
The distribution of asteroids in the belt is strongly affected by Jupiter's gravitational force. Certain orbits in the belt almost free of asteroids are called Kirkwood gaps after their discoverer, Daniel Kirkwood. These empty orbits are at certain distances from the Sun where an asteroid would find itself in a resonance with Jupiter. For example, an asteroid with an average distance from the Sun of 3.28 AU will travel exactly twice around the Sun in the time it takes Jupiter to travel once. Such an asteroid would pass Jupiter at the same place in space every second orbit and be tugged outward. The cumulative perturbations would rapidly change the asteroid's orbit until it was no longer in resonance with Jupiter. Thus, Jupiter effectively eliminates objects from the orbit resonance. The example given represents a 2:1 resonance, but gaps occur in the asteroid belt at many other resonances, including 3:1, 5:2, and 7:3.
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