Mean motion resonance

Okay kiddo, think of mean motion resonance like a game of leap frog. Imagine you and your friend are playing and she is bigger than you, so she takes bigger jumps than you. Every time she takes two jumps, you take three jumps to catch up to her. This means that every five jumps, you will both be in the same spot again.

Now imagine that instead of you and your friend, it’s two planets orbiting the Sun. The bigger planet takes longer to go around the Sun than the smaller planet. But if the smaller planet takes more orbits than the bigger planet, they will eventually line up again. This is called a mean motion resonance!

Just like in the game of leap frog, different planets can have different “jumping” patterns. Some planets might take two orbits for every three orbits of another planet, and this creates a resonance between them. It’s like they’re taking turns being in the lead, with the bigger planet slowing down the smaller planet and the smaller planet speeding up the bigger planet.

Scientists study mean motion resonance to better understand how planets move and how they interact with each other. It can help us discover new planets and learn more about our solar system!