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Pluto, which is only about two-thirds the size of our moon, is a cold, dark and frozen place. Relatively little is known about this tiny planet with the strange orbit. Its composition is presumed to be rock and ice, with a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane. The Hubble Space Telescope has produced only fuzzy images (above) of the distant object. Pluto's 248-year orbit is off-center in relation to the sun, which causes the planet to cross the orbital path of Neptune. From 1979 until early 1999, Pluto had been the eighth planet from the sun. Then, on February 11, 1999, it crossed Neptune's path and once again became the solar system's most distant planet. It will remain the ninth planet for 228 years. Pluto's orbit is inclined, or tilted, 17.1 degrees from the ecliptic -- the plane that Earth orbits in. Except for Mercury's inclination of 7 degrees, all the other planets orbit more closely to the ecliptic. Interestingly, a similar thing happens with Jupiter's moons: Many orbit on the ecliptic, but some are inclined from that plane. Did you wonder: Will Pluto and Neptune ever collide? They won't, because their orbits are so different. Pluto intersects the solar system's ecliptic, or orbital plane, twice as its orbit brings it 'above,' then 'below' that plane where most of the other planets' revolve -- including Neptune. And, though they are neighbors Pluto and Neptune are always more than a billion miles apart.Is it a planet at all? Some astronomers think Pluto may have wandered into the system of planets from a more distant region known as the Kuiper belt -- a region beyond the orbit of Pluto thought to contain Pluto-like objects and comets that orbit the sun in a plane similar to the planets of the solar system. If that's the case, Pluto is not a planet at all, but is probably more like a large asteroid or comet. Some have also suggested that it may have once been a moon of Neptune and escaped. The International Astronomical Union, the organization responsible for classifying planets, gives these reasons for questioning Pluto's status as a planet:
· All the other planets in the outer solar system are gaseous, giant planets whereas Pluto is a small solid object
· Pluto is smaller than any other planet by more than a factor of 2.
· Pluto's orbit is by far the most inclined with respect to the plane of the solar system, and also the most eccentric, with only the eccentricity of Mercury's orbit even coming close
· Pluto's orbit is the only planetary orbit which crosses that of another planet (during 1999 Pluto will again cross Neptune's orbit, thus regaining its status as the most distant planet)
· Pluto's satellite, Charon, is larger in proportion to its planet than any other satellite in the solar system.
Pluto has one moon, Charon, which was discovered in 1978. The satellite may be a chunk that broke off Pluto in a collision with another large object.
PLUTO: HADES IN ANCIENT MYTH, ROMAN GOD OF THE UNDERWORLD
Pluto was not discovered until 1930, by amateur American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. Since Tombaugh's death in 1997, many astronomers have increasingly urged the International Astronomical Union, which names celestial objects, to strip Pluto of its status as a planet. After a news report generated a flurry of irate e-mails about the possible change, officials assured the world that Pluto would remain a planet. But it will also likely become the first in a new class of celestial object known as a TNO, or Trans-Neptunian Object. It seems Pluto may then have a sort of dual citizenship.

“Our mission concept is to send a single spacecraft to orbit Pluto for two Earth years before breaking away to visit at least one Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) and one other KBO dwarf planet,” said. Pluto is about 3.6 billion miles away from the Sun and has five moons. Pluto’s atmosphere is thin and composed mostly of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide. Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, are so similar in size that they orbit each other like a double planet system. Pluto's orbit Pluto's 248-year orbit is off-center in relation to the sun, which causes the planet to cross the orbital path of Neptune. From 1979 until early 1999, Pluto had been the eighth planet. Watch 250+ channels of free TV and 1000's of on-demand movies and TV shows.

Pluto’s orbital period is long. It takes 248 years and its orbital characteristics are substantially different from every other planet in our Solar System; a year in Pluto is equivalent to 248 Earth years. As you already know, the planets orbit around the Sun on a flat reference plane which is called the ecliptic and each of those planets have nearly circular orbits. However, in Pluto’s case, its orbit is highly eccentric. This eccentricity in the way it orbits makes a small region of the dwarf planet orbit closer to the sun instead of Neptune’s. In fact, this isn’t an isolated case at all.

Despite its seeming regularity, this pattern actually suggests that in the long term, Pluto’s orbit is completely chaotic. There are computer simulations available that are often used to predict Pluto’s position for the next several million years, however, it is still quite impossible to really predict for sure where Pluto will end up because its position can become overly sensitive to various small details of the current state of our Solar System. Despite the fact that Pluto’s orbit often crosses with that of Neptune’s, their orbits are aligned in a way that they never collide nor get too close with each other.

Pluto Orbits The Sun In How Many Days

There are various reasons for this and the simplest one would be the fact that their orbits simply do not intersect each other. Whenever Pluto is closest to the Sun, it also becomes the farthest above the ecliptic. This basically means that Pluto’s orbit passes at around 8 AU above that of Neptune therefore avoiding a major collision.

Pluto Orbital Path

Change of Status – Pluto