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| subject: | Is Pluto a planet? |
-> I never have thought so. It's orbital parameters are too
-> anomalous. And then there's Neptune's inclination to it's
-> orbital plane, over 90 degrees. I can't think of a solid
-> explanation, but I've always wondered if Pluto might have
-> been a moon of Neptune, perhaps close enough to be rotationally
-> locked like Mercury, and somehow (passing body?) gotten flipped
-> out of the plane and tipping Neptune as a reaction.
-> p.s. Hubble seems to have found two new smaller moons beyond
-> Charon.
-> Paul Rogers, paulgrogers{at}yahoo.com -o)
Neptune's axis is only moderately tilted, at about 29 degrees. You're
probably thinking of Uranus when you say the tilt is more than 90
degrees. Pluto's axis is also tilted more than 90 degrees.
The idea that Pluto is an escaped satellite of Neptune is now regarded
as highly improbable. Pluto's (at least 3) satellites would not have
stayed with it through any event that might have ejected it from
Neptune's system. Also, no satellite in the solar system has satellites
of its own, for good reasons involving tides produced by the planet.
Pluto could not have been in orbit around Neptune with Charon and the
others in orbit around it.
Pluto is just the largest of a family of Kuyper Belt Objects that are
in orbital resonance with Neptune. Quite a few of them are already
known.
dow
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