A 2012 Hubble image captures Pluto with its five known moons. (NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter (SETI Institute))
Posted on 06/03/2015 3:29:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The dwarf planet Pluto and its system of five moons are about as mysterious as the underworld of antiquity that inspired their names.
...
“We are still baffled by how the system formed,” says study co-author Mark Showalter, a senior research scientist at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute. “I think everyone believes that, at some point in the distant past, a large object bashed into ‘proto-Pluto’ and the moons formed out of the debris cloud. However, after that point in the story, details get very sketchy.”
Now, analysis of data collected from the Hubble Space Telescope following the discoveries of Kerberos and Styx suggests that Styx is locked into an orbital resonance with Nix and Hydra, supporting the impact theory. Orbital resonance is when multiple bodies exert regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other so that they complete their orbits in a predictable pattern. The best known example is the Laplace resonance of Jupiter’s three moons, Io, Europa and Ganymede, which have an orbital resonance of 1:2:4. This means that Io orbits Jupiter four times for every one of Ganymede’s rotations, while Europa orbits twice in that same time.
Mathematical models by Showalter show that the resonances of all five Pluto moons could have been locked into a 1:3:4:5:6 relationship after the Charon-forming impact, very close to the current ratio of orbital periods for Pluto’s moons. This theory also explains the remaining resonance of Styx, Nix and Hydra. But there is a complicating factor: The other bodies in the Pluto system inject chaos into those moons’ otherwise stable configuration.
Styx, Nix and Hydra appear to be locked in resonance most of the time, but Nix and Hydra are periodically thrown into chaos, and it's been difficult to pinoint the cause.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
I saw the first three words of the headline, (Weird Orbital Behaviors) thought it was another story about Hillary’s floundering campaign.
Maybe we can travel back in time to watch it.
Oh wait, that’s pretty much impossible.
There’s those that say we could travel to the future. No, it’s called getting up to relativistic speed, then coming back a few years later ship’s time. That’s “traveling to the future,” in the most loose sense of the saying.
It’s got me baffled. Baffled I tell you. How about you, are you baffled?
It's nice that they named a moon after her.
I'm so silly
They’re not “weird”: they’re “ellipsoidally-challenged”.
Okay, now you get a picture of her moon.....http://o.onionstatic.com/images/8/8384/original/700.hq.jpg?3958
The origin of Pluto
J. R. Dormand & M. Woolfson
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1980MNRAS.193..171D
The Neptune-Triton-Pluto system
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~ewilcots/courses/astro340s04/readings/triton.ps
The Satellites Of Neptune And The Origin Of Pluto
R. S. Harrington And T. C. van Flandern
http://saturniancosmology.org/files/.cdrom/journals/kronos/vol0502/048pluto.htm
The Original Solar System
Tom Van Flandern
http://metaresearch.org/solar%20system/origins/original-solar-system.asp
Obviously the probe should check for gold dust. And women. Thanks martin_fierro.
|
Obviously the probe should check for gold dust. And women. Thanks martin_fierro.
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
| Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar · | ||
_001.png)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
