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The comet's perihelion is just under that of Earth, while its aphelion is just over that of Pluto. An unusual aspect of its orbit is that it was recently captured into a 1:11 orbital resonance with Jupiter; it completes one orbit for every 11 of Jupiter. [8] It was the first comet in a retrograde orbit to be found in a resonance. [8]
Centaurs have unstable orbits in which the perihelion (q) is well inside of Neptune's orbit but the farthest point (aphelion, Q) is very distant. The first TNO to be discovered was Pluto in 1930. It became the namesake of a larger group of resonant objects called plutinos (another such resonant subgroup are the twotinos).
JPL Horizons computes an aphelion around the year 2005 at about 133 AU, [11] whereas Project Pluto computes aphelion around the year 1976 slightly further out at 134 AU. [12] Its perihelion is a little less than that of Neptune .
An object with an e of between 0 and 1 will have an elliptical orbit, with, for instance, an object with an e of 0.5 having a perihelion twice as close to the Sun as its aphelion. As an object's e approaches 1, its orbit will be more and more elongated before, and at e =1, the object's orbit will be parabolic and unbound to the Solar System (i ...
Pluto and Neptune's minimum separation is over 17 AU, which is greater than Pluto's minimum separation from Uranus (11 AU). [93] The minimum separation between Pluto and Neptune actually occurs near the time of Pluto's aphelion. [90] Ecliptic longitude of Neptune minus that of Pluto (blue), and rate of change of Pluto's distance from the sun (red).
This can only occur at two points in Pluto's orbit; coincidentally, these points are near Pluto's perihelion and aphelion. Occultations occur when Pluto passes in front of and blocks one of Pluto's satellites. Charon has an angular diameter of 4 degrees of arc as seen from the surface of Pluto; the Sun appears much smaller, only 39 to 65 ...
Log-log plot of period T vs semi-major axis a (average of aphelion and perihelion) of some Solar System orbits (crosses denoting Kepler's values) showing that a 3 / T 2 is constant (green line) In astrodynamics the orbital period T of a small body orbiting a central body in a circular or elliptical orbit is: [1]
Grand Trine of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. This last occurred in 1769 and 1770. 2283 C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) (source of the April Lyrids) is expected to come to perihelion. [64] 2284 Perihelion of Comet Halley. [65] Previous perihelion passages were in 1986, 2061, 2134, and 2209. 2287