Emily's KBO diagram, under development and open for discussion Options

[ngunn]

In this post Emily demonstrates an interesting way to depict the movements of Kuiper Belt objects: http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003381/

I like this diagram. It reminds me of lissajous figures on an oscilloscope screen in the case where the x and y signals have the same frequency but differing phase relationships. I agree with the idea of reducing the size of the objects' position and direction markers. Perhaps tiny triangles could serve in both capacities by being oriented to point along the 'orbits'. I would like to see Sedna included since the (so far) unique nature of its motion would stand out well. I think its trajectory during at least the second half of the 600 year timespan in question would fit on the diagram.

[cndwrld]

I like your diagram, Emily. It just depends who your audience is, I guess. To me, it isn't intuitive. It is really nice, but requires some figuring out. And of course, making something obvious and intuitive is always the hard part. Plus, no single diagram works for everyone, so I could be in a minority.

I tried to put here a screen shot of one section of the Venus Express long term planning poster I use. We like to show relative positions using the standard orbit diagrams, Sun centric. It isn't fancy, or even accurate; but it is intuitive.



I was wondering about using a form of the orbit diagram, coupled with the orbit in different colors. One could show the orbits from above, to give you the relative distance from the Sun. To add a second dimension, you could color code the orbit ellipses to show relative distance from the ecliptic. If one used a spectrum, from minus-a-lot degrees through zero degrees to plus-a-lot degrees, going from red to green to blue, you might see more intuitively both how the eccentricity of the orbit changes as well as the distance from the ecliptic.

Pair that with a shot of the orbits taken from 'the side', in the ecliptic, showing the relative elevation of the orbits above the ecliptic. The two together, with duplicated information reinforcing each other, might make it more intuitive.

I hope the idea is clear. I also hope it isn't stupid. But I'd settle for just clear. Stupid ideas, I have lots of those.