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Pluto and Neptune are locked in a 3:2 orbital resonance, which means that for every three trips Neptune makes around the Sun, Pluto orbits twice.
Could Neptune and Pluto ever collide, as their orbits intersect? - BBC Science Focus Magazine.
However, crossing orbits does not imply these planets will collide. Here’s why: As Pluto travels in its orbit, Neptune’s gravity causes small “course corrections.”
Answer: No. From 1979 to 1999, Pluto was the eighth planet from the sun. In 1999, it slipped beyond Neptune to become the ninth. But Pluto's 248-year orbit around the sun takes it 17 degrees...
It is true that the orbits of Neptune and Pluto cross, with the two objects swapping positions in the Solar System. Despite this, however, there is no chance of them colliding.
In February 1979, Pluto crossed into and passed the orbit of Neptune, making it, for the time anyway, the 8th furthest planet from the sun, and Neptune being bumped down to 9th (this was still at a time when Pluto was considered a planet).
It works like this: on the first orbit, Pluto beats Neptune to the point their orbits cross, and the two avoid a collision by a huge distance. By the time Pluto completes another orbit,...
Pluto last crossed inside Neptune's orbit on February 7, 1979, and temporarily became the 8th planet from the Sun. Pluto will cross back over Neptune's orbit again on February 11, 1999 to resume its place as the 9th planet from the Sun for the next 228 years.
For 20 years of its 248-year journey around the sun, Pluto actually moves inside Neptune's orbit. That they never collide is a consequence of two properties of Pluto's orbit, known as...
Pluto and Neptune have resonant orbits. While Pluto makes two revolutions around the Sun, Neptune makes three; so astronomers say Neptune and Pluto are in a 3:2 resonance. This orbital...