|
|
The Question
(Submitted March 26, 1997)
Pluto's orbit crosses that of Neptune's, on what date will they
eventually collide?
The Answer
Pluto "crossed" Neptune's orbit on January 21, 1979, and temporarily
became the 8th planet from the sun. It will cross Neptune's orbit
again on Feb. 11, 1999 to resume its place as the ninth planet from the
sun for the next 228 years.
Despite the fact that Pluto and Neptune temporarily change places
in their distance from the sun, they will never collide. This is due
to two reasons: First, Pluto's orbit is inclined to the ecliptic.
by 17 degrees. (To see an illustration of this, take a look at
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/billa/tnp/overview.html.) So even though
we say their orbits "cross", Pluto is actually quite a distance
"above"Neptune. Secondly, Pluto orbits the sun twice for every
three orbits of Neptune. The two planets are said to be in a
"resonance orbit". For
such orbits, the two bodies never get close to each other. In fact,
the closest the two planets come to each other is 2 billion kilometers.
Jim Lochner & Karen Smale
for Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Questions on this topic are no longer responded to by the "Ask a
High-Energy Astronomer" service. See http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/ask_an_astronomer.html
for help on other astronomy Q&A services.
|
