Image:Kirkwood-gaps-as-disk.png

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This is a plot of a*cos(node + peri), a*sin(node + peri) for the Minor Planet Centre's MPCORB.DAT table of asteroid elements as of 2006-03-30. It is a re-creation of fig 9.27 in Murray and Dermott's Solar System Dynamics, p. 456.

It is not a plot of individual asteroid positions, but a rendering of quantities derived from the osculating elements in the aforementioned table.

The famous Kirkwood Gaps are clearly visible, as is a clear bias towards the longitude of Jupiter's perihelion (which points to the right and a bit up in this view). Please click on the full resolution image and scroll around to perceive the radial gaps and clustering better, as well as a better perception of the increased density of points to the right of the plot.

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