Posted on 08/19/2015 11:44:33 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
As a very direct example of why it is not stable, using only the information from this article... Pluto is losing atmosphere. That atmosphere has mass. What happens to an orbiting body that is constantly losing mass... is that orbit going to be remain stable?
Thing is, NO sane informed theory involves Pluto springing into existence and achieving a tranquil orbit in just 100 human lifespans.
Pluto was discovered 85 years ago and has on a 248-year orbit. It has not even been known to humankind for half a trip around the Sun yet. Calling the orbit “tranquil” is highly speculative - its planetary system sure isn’t tranquil by any stretch of the imagination, it is highly chaotic. We don’t even know for sure whether it is capable of completing one single, full stable orbit; the observational data isn’t there. Heck, we didn’t even know how many moons it had until New Horizons got close to it.
We understand orbital mechanics VERY well. Maybe not perfectly, but enough that Pluto’s orbit is predictable, from what we’ve seen, too well more than 40 revolutions.
It’s predictable in the forward direction but we don’t know how or when it got there in the first place.
We’re smart enough to limit the possible range of how and when it got there. Whatever could have conceivably moved it to its current trajectory within the last ten millennia would have left a whole lot of evidence.
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