the.com/kirkwood gap
the asteroid belt's no-fly zones, cleared out by jupiter's relentless gravitational nagging.
means a region in the asteroid belt where almost no asteroids orbit, because jupiter's gravity resonates with that orbital period and flings anything there into a new path.
from named after daniel kirkwood, a 19th-century american astronomer who in 1866 noticed suspicious empty bands in the asteroid belt and correctly guessed jupiter was the bouncer.
main gapsoccur at 3:1, 5:2, 7:3, 2:1 resonances with jupiter
not emptygaps are low-density, not perfectly asteroid-free
same tricksaturn's rings show similar gaps from moon resonances
kirkwood jobhe was a self-taught astronomer, former grammar teacher