Pluto and its Moon

(G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote in message ...
Hope I'm right in saying Pluto is a solid ice(water) planet for the most
part???

It probably has a lot of water ice in it, but its mean density is
higher than that of water (about 2 grams per cubic centimeter). Some
of it has got to be rocky material as well.

Is its Moon made out of the same material? Do they both have
a nice round shape(very spherical spheres)

Pretty much. Charon's mean density may be a tad lower (about 1.9
g/cc), but is still pretty close to Pluto's density figure.

If so both could be two
comets locked in their gravity fields???

No, they are not comets. Pluto is a planet and Charon is its moon.
They are also among the largest members of the Kuiper belt, a
scattered group of similar bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune.

They have a lot of sameness
to comets. They are small,

Pluto and Charon are *hugely* larger than most comets. The solid part
of comets (the nucleus) are generally between one and 50 kilometers
across and are often irregularly shaped. Cometary orbits tend to be
highly elliptical, often coming inside the orbit of Jupiter. Pluto is
2,360 km across and Charon is 1,186 kilometers in diameter. Both
bodies orbit in a slightly elliptical path around the sun but do not
approach it.

and have an elliptical orbit etc.

All bodies orbiting in the solar system have elliptical orbits.

They are
very far out from the sun. I think they were pushed from the Oort belt
to get locked into an orbit around the sun.

No, they are part of the Kuiper belt and may have been formed there.
The Oort "cloud" is much farther out.


David Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org

"wb8pid" wrote in message
news:svMeb.31125$AH4.19374@lakeread06...
Pluto and/or Chiron's fall into the sun happens all the time: it is their
orbit that keeps them from getting 'too close.' I doubt that their orbit
is
stable, inasmuch as it falls inside that of Neptune for at least part of
it's circuit around the sun. That would mean to me that if Neptune is
within 'close proximity' at the time that Pluto is inside Neptune's orbit,
Pluto's orbit would be 'perturbated'. Pluto and Chiron would then assume
a
new orbit, which could indeed send it toward the sun. LaPlace and orbital
mechanics allow for an elliptical orbit, which allows for a stable orbit;
or
a parabolic or a hyperbolic orbit, which would cause us to bid farewell to
our ninth planet and its moon.

Actually, Pluto's orbit and Neptune's orbit are in resonance meaning that
for every integral number of orbits Neptune does, so does Pluto. During the
time it takes Neptune to make 3 revolutions around the Sun, Pluto makes 2.
This makes Pluto's orbit fairly stable. Also, because Pluto's orbit is quite
tilted, Pluto and Neptune never come that close one might think. Check
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplan.../plutodyn.html to see
what I mean.

"wb8pid" wrote in message
news:svMeb.31125$AH4.19374@lakeread06...
Pluto and/or Chiron's fall into the sun happens all the time: it is their
orbit that keeps them from getting 'too close.' I doubt that their orbit
is
stable, inasmuch as it falls inside that of Neptune for at least part of
it's circuit around the sun. That would mean to me that if Neptune is
within 'close proximity' at the time that Pluto is inside Neptune's orbit,
Pluto's orbit would be 'perturbated'. Pluto and Chiron would then assume
a
new orbit, which could indeed send it toward the sun. LaPlace and orbital
mechanics allow for an elliptical orbit, which allows for a stable orbit;
or
a parabolic or a hyperbolic orbit, which would cause us to bid farewell to
our ninth planet and its moon.

Actually, Pluto's orbit and Neptune's orbit are in resonance meaning that
for every integral number of orbits Neptune does, so does Pluto. During the
time it takes Neptune to make 3 revolutions around the Sun, Pluto makes 2.
This makes Pluto's orbit fairly stable. Also, because Pluto's orbit is quite
tilted, Pluto and Neptune never come that close one might think. Check
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplan.../plutodyn.html to see
what I mean.

David It was Kepler that figured out the motions of planets. He did
that almost 400 years ago. My question is this. Was he able to measure
the effect of how planets gravity influenced each other? Bert

David It was Kepler that figured out the motions of planets. He did
that almost 400 years ago. My question is this. Was he able to measure
the effect of how planets gravity influenced each other? Bert

(G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote in message ...
David It was Kepler that figured out the motions of planets. He did
that almost 400 years ago. My question is this. Was he able to measure
the effect of how planets gravity influenced each other? Bert

No, Kepler wasn't able to do this. He discovered the laws of
planetary motion but not the physics behind it. That task fell to
others who built up the portion of gravitational dynamics known as
"perturbation theory" after Issac Newton defined the mathematics
behind the law of Gravity.

David Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org

(G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote in message ...
David It was Kepler that figured out the motions of planets. He did
that almost 400 years ago. My question is this. Was he able to measure
the effect of how planets gravity influenced each other? Bert

No, Kepler wasn't able to do this. He discovered the laws of
planetary motion but not the physics behind it. That task fell to
others who built up the portion of gravitational dynamics known as
"perturbation theory" after Issac Newton defined the mathematics
behind the law of Gravity.

David Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org

I mean habitable planets in general. Earth is the only one we know about.
We surmise that there must be others somewhere.

Jerry Abbott


"onegod" wrote in message
...
That's earth

Bottom line is there are oceans, desert, polar caps which are 1000000
times
more habitable then other planets that are hardly habited. Instead of
spending trillion for few hundred people to live, few billion can be spend
to make few million live or grow salt talerant plants.


"Jerry Abbott" wrote in message
...
Hope I'm right in saying Pluto is a solid ice(water) planet for the
most
part??? Is its Moon made out of the same material? Do they both
have
a nice round shape(very spherical spheres) If so both could be two
comets locked in their gravity fields??? They have a lot of sameness
to comets. They are small,and have an elliptical orbit etc. They are
very far out from the sun. I think they were pushed from the Oort
belt
to get locked into an orbit around the sun. I further think if
Pluto and its Moon came towards the sun like comets do,they would fall
into the sun like David told me that could very well happen to comets
from time to time. Bert


I've heard lots of speculation about Pluto's composition and origins.
We
won't know much until somebody gets a close look at it. Which might not
happen in our lifetimes. I've been told that Nixon and Congress delayed
Voyager until Pluto could not be included in its "grand tour," but I
never
really checked into that. The part of astronomy that most interests me
is
habitable planets, not gas giants or icy bodies.

Jerry Abbott

I mean habitable planets in general. Earth is the only one we know about.
We surmise that there must be others somewhere.

Jerry Abbott


"onegod" wrote in message
...
That's earth

Bottom line is there are oceans, desert, polar caps which are 1000000
times
more habitable then other planets that are hardly habited. Instead of
spending trillion for few hundred people to live, few billion can be spend
to make few million live or grow salt talerant plants.


"Jerry Abbott" wrote in message
...
Hope I'm right in saying Pluto is a solid ice(water) planet for the
most
part??? Is its Moon made out of the same material? Do they both
have
a nice round shape(very spherical spheres) If so both could be two
comets locked in their gravity fields??? They have a lot of sameness
to comets. They are small,and have an elliptical orbit etc. They are
very far out from the sun. I think they were pushed from the Oort
belt
to get locked into an orbit around the sun. I further think if
Pluto and its Moon came towards the sun like comets do,they would fall
into the sun like David told me that could very well happen to comets
from time to time. Bert


I've heard lots of speculation about Pluto's composition and origins.
We
won't know much until somebody gets a close look at it. Which might not
happen in our lifetimes. I've been told that Nixon and Congress delayed
Voyager until Pluto could not be included in its "grand tour," but I
never
really checked into that. The part of astronomy that most interests me
is
habitable planets, not gas giants or icy bodies.

Jerry Abbott