Colloquium

It is well known that, in the Asteroid Belt, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, the distribution of asteroids has the so-called Kirkwood gaps exactly at mean motion resonances of low order. We study the dynamics of the Newtonian Sun-Jupiter-Asteroid problem near such resonances. We construct a variety of diffusing orbits which show a drastic change of the osculating eccentricity of the asteroid, while the osculating semi-major axis is kept almost constant. We shall also discuss stochastic aspects of dynamics in near mean motion dynamics. This might be an explanation of presence of Kirkwood gaps. This is a joint work with J. Fejoz, M. Guardia, and P. Roldan.

Note: the talk will be accessible to a general math audience.