StarChild Question of the Month for January 1999

Question:

Answer:

So will Pluto and Neptune ever collide? No! You can see this in the image below, which shows a view as seen from the side as the planets orbit around the Sun. Most planets only make small excursions in the vertical and radial directions, but Pluto is an exception. Pluto at times will move closer to the Sun than Neptune, but it is always well above the orbit of Neptune when this happens. The orbits never actually cross the same point in space.

You can read more about the orbital patterns of Pluto at:

http://nineplanets.org/overview.html

http://windows.engin.umich.edu/pluto/pluto_orbit.html

Regards,

StarChild

The StarChild site is a service of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), Dr. Alan Smale (Director), within the Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) at NASA/ GSFC.