An uninformed person might look at this and think the Kuiper orbits are circles with a 50 AU radius or the Main Asteroid belt orbits are circles with a 4 AU radius. In reality, they're ellipses with a range of eccentricities and semi-major axis lengths.
In my opinion the populations of small bodies should be rendered as a cloud instead of a path.
They're not elliptical because this is a very simplified diagram; none of the orbits or relative distances are correct. I'm not rendering this with technical software and I'm not trying to make this accurate; just more simple to understand.
I did think of making a cloud but this again is trying to go for realism while this should remain a simple diagram. To show that it IS a cloud instead of a perfect orbit I added a subtle gradient. I used different colors to make it more obvious that the yellow lines are no orbits.
That's a pity though. I'm frequently checking the Pulse app where I receive news from various astronomy blogs like Bad Astronomy, and I always download new documentaries, lectures and series when they become available. I'm not too happy with the commercialized and dramatized series nowadays though. A series like "The Universe" is quite fascinating but then they come with these absurd analogies to make the average person understand.
Anyway, these series was started to give people more perspective on how big the universe actually is, and eventually also to render my own ideas on what's beyond that. This series is far from finished, though at this point I'm not sure I will find the motivation to finish it.
In my opinion the populations of small bodies should be rendered as a cloud instead of a path.
They're not elliptical because this is a very simplified diagram; none of the orbits or relative distances are correct. I'm not rendering this with technical software and I'm not trying to make this accurate; just more simple to understand.
I did think of making a cloud but this again is trying to go for realism while this should remain a simple diagram. To show that it IS a cloud instead of a perfect orbit I added a subtle gradient. I used different colors to make it more obvious that the yellow lines are no orbits.
Anyway, these series was started to give people more perspective on how big the universe actually is, and eventually also to render my own ideas on what's beyond that. This series is far from finished, though at this point I'm not sure I will find the motivation to finish it.