[Beowulf9]

Numerical simulation of Nix’s appearance as seen from Pluto shows its wobbly motion. Its pole even flips!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwSFC-aPEG0&feature=youtu.be

[cripplecreek]

Space tater.

[cripplecreek]

If you use the NASA Eyes on the solar system program you can see the odd orbits.

http://eyes.nasa.gov/download.html

[dr_lew]

Thanks for the link. Very interesting, but some of the depictions seem contradictory. They say they sped up the orbit so that one revolution takes 2 seconds, but the star background repeats in about 44 seconds. ( You can see that the sun angle rotates at about 1 rev/ 2 sec, as they state. )

Also, the orbit is a fixed plane, and is even depicted in my Starry Night software, where I can set my POV to Pluto. Charon is in the same plane, and appears quite large, so it eclipses Nix everytime it overtakes it.

I guess they were focusing on the body motion of Nix, and just threw the background in willy-nilly, unless someone can set me straight! ( but I don’t see how ... )