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A Kirkwood gap is an area within the solar system with few asteroids, that corresponds to a location where a body would be in orbital resonance with Jupiter. For example, at the location where an object would have a third the orbital period of Jupiter's, there are few asteroids. The most prominent gaps are at the 4:1, 3:1, 5:2, 7:3, and 2:1 orbital resonances. The gaps form because asteroids in such resonances gain eccentricity, the evolving orbits eventually losing the resonance. Daniel Kirkwood first discovered the phenomena in 1866.