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[2]: 419–420 Alternatively, astronomers R. S. Harrington and T. C. van Flandern proposed that same year that an encounter with a rogue object several times more massive than Earth could provide the gravitational influence and energy necessary to eject Pluto and reverse Triton's orbit whilst disrupting the rest of the Neptune system. [3]
After 500–600 million years (about 4 billion years ago) Jupiter and Saturn divergently crossed the 2:1 orbital resonance, in which Saturn orbited the Sun once for every two Jupiter orbits. [43] This resonance crossing increased the eccentricities of Jupiter and Saturn and destabilized the orbits of Uranus and Neptune.
However, Pluto is also protected by its 2:3 orbital resonance with Neptune: for every two orbits that Pluto makes around the Sun, Neptune makes three, in a frame of reference that rotates at the rate that Pluto's perihelion precesses (about 0.97 × 10 −4 degrees per year [90]). Each cycle lasts about 495 years.
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Four test orbits of a trans-Plutonian planet have been integrated forward for four million years in order to determine the effects of such a body on the stability of the Neptune–Pluto 3:2 resonance. Planets beyond Pluto with masses of 0.1 and 1.0 Earth masses in orbits at 48.3 and 75.5 AU, respectively, do not disturb the 3:2 resonance.
It was used to integrate out to 845 million years – some 20% of the age of the Solar System. In 1988, Sussman and Wisdom found data using the Orrery that revealed that Pluto's orbit shows signs of chaos, due in part to its peculiar resonance with Neptune. [9] If Pluto's orbit is chaotic, then technically the whole Solar System is chaotic.
This 2:3 resonance is populated by about 200 known objects, [61] including Pluto together with its moons. In recognition of this, the members of this family are known as plutinos. Many plutinos, including Pluto, have orbits that cross that of Neptune, although their resonance means they can never collide.
Objects in this resonance complete 2 orbits for every 3 of Neptune, and are known as plutinos because the largest of the known Kuiper belt objects, Pluto, is among them. [148] Although Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit regularly, the 2:3 resonance makes it so that they can never collide. [149] The 3:4, 3:5, 4:7 and 2:5 resonances are less populated ...