Questions tagged [pluto]
Questions regarding the former 9th (now dwarf) planet Pluto.
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How close will Pluto come to Earth this year (2024)?
For reasons associated with a 1943 story, I am keen to find how close Earth will come to Pluto in 2024. According to https://theskylive.com/pluto-tracker today (21-May-2024), Pluto is now slowly ...
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How can I calculate the geocentric longitude of Pluto in a similar way to VSOP87's algorithm?
The book "Astronomical Algorithms" teaches a way to calculate the position of any of the planets for almost any date, until you get to Pluto.
To try to get around that, I attempted to ...
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why the difference in resolution for images of Pluto?
Pluto was explored by the New Horizons probe. The most detailed images of Pluto's surface come from this flyby. But if you look at the images, there is one hemisphere where the images have a much ...
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Can we learn anything from the chaotic movement of Hydra and Nix?
The NASA Visualization Explorer Moons In Chaos says Hydra and Nix, two of the moons of Pluto, show chaotic movement due to the shifting gravitational field.
How long a day lasts and where the sun ...
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Why does Wikipedia state that the Solar System has one unconfirmed planet?
I was looking at exoplanets on Wikipedia, and found this surprising information:
The table states that the Sun has 8 planets (obviously) and one unconfirmed planet. Why is this here? I think it's ...
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Why was Pluto declassified as a planet? [closed]
I have been wondering this and the teachers at my high school never really gave me an answer. Please help, why was Pluto kicked out of the solar system?
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Moment of inertia factor of Venus and Pluto
Wikipedia's Moment of inertia factor begins:
In planetary sciences, the moment of inertia factor or normalized polar moment of inertia is a dimensionless quantity that characterizes the radial ...
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How many solar system objects that can really qualify as a KBO are likely to enter Pluto's Hill sphere each day?
A comment below Which celestial body is able to come closest to Pluto? says that
Technically, many, many small Kuiper belt objects enter Pluto's Hill Sphere (or sphere of influence SOI) every day.
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Which celestial body is able to come closest to Pluto?
Other than Pluto's moons (including Charon), which known body comes closest to Pluto, and how close? Neptune doesn't come closer than 16 au. What about Orcus, whose orbit is similar to Pluto's, or ...
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Abundance of penitente ice formations in the solar system
When researching for my question on extraterresitral snow, I learned about a rare snow formation called penitente which seems to be found on various (dwarf) planets, like Earth, Mars, and Pluto. ...
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Can Pluto be seen with the naked eye from Neptune when Pluto and Neptune are closest?
When Neptune and Pluto are closest, about 100 million mi (160 million km) from each other, would an observer on Neptune (or rather on one of its moons, since Neptune is gaseous) be able to see Pluto, ...
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What's the temperature of Pluto's core?
The surface is freezing-nitrogen cold, but it's typical for the temperature to increase towards the core. What's the temperature of the core of Pluto? Is the planet icy and rocky all the way through? ...
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What other definitions for a planet were proposed?
This article from the IAU states
The first draft proposal for the definition of a planet was debated vigorously by astronomers at the 2006 IAU General Assembly in Prague and a new version slowly took ...
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What was the definition of a planet before August 24, 2006?
In 2006, the IAU produced a definition of what it is to be a planet. This definition famously excludes Pluto, to the disarray of this small body's fans.
Before this decision, what was the definition ...
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How bright is it on Pluto in the middle of the day? [duplicate]
I just saw a documentary about New Horizons and Pluto with plenty of photos New Horizon had taken of Pluto. All these photos were very bright, like Earth would be during the day. Considering the ...
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