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Kirkwood gap, Kirkwood gaps
One of a series of vacancies in the distribution of the orbits of the minor planets, marked by the absence of minor planets whose orbits have periods that are simple fractions of the orbital period of Jupiter.

The reason for this activity is that in such positions any minor planet would be repeatedly perturbed by Jupiter's gravitational field until it was forced out of the "forbidden" orbit.

The gaps are an example of gravitational resonance.

This entry is located in the following unit: Astronomy and related astronomical terms (page 14)