October 20, 2016

The orbit of Pluto and Charon (Binary System)

image taken by the space probe New Horizon (2015)
Pluto: It is a dwarf planet discovered in 1930 by american astronomer  Clyde William Tombaugh, it is a TNO (Trans-Neptunian object), that is, it is beyond the orbit of Neptun, also is the object biggest of the Kuiper Belt.

Its orbital period is 248 years, however as it has a very eccentric orbit, Pluto is closer the Sun than Neptune for 20 years (at perihelion).
during the rest of the time Pluton is farther from the sun than Neptune.

Pluto has 5 Satellites, these are: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. The largest satellite pluto is Charon and both form a binary system

Binary System:
In astronomy a binary system is when two objects (planet and moon) have similar Mass and are very close, they undergo an attractive force, equal in magnitude but in the opposite direction (as explained by the law of universal gravitation of Newton) then both they revolve around a midpoint called centroid.


In the case of our planet is a Planet-Satellite system, Earth has a significantly higher mass than the moon, Therefore it apparently not revolve around a point in space, but revolve on its own axis

Charon's Gravity pulls Pluto making that it isn't only has an orbit around the sun (Like the other planets), but also has an orbit which rotates on its own axis, while performing a movement of elliptical trajectory around the centroid.

If Charon never existed what about Pluto?
If Charon never existed things to Pluto would be diferent, no longer would form a binary system the process of rotation would be like that of the other planets (on its axis) and rotation period would be greater, (would take more than the 6.38 Earth days currently used for a spin on its axis).
Similarly if the moon had never existed, the days on Earth would be much longer.

How would look Charon from Pluto's surface?
Currently, No one has traveled and landed in Pluto, but if we were on Pluto and we looked Charon, we haven't seen a change in position on the surface of the planet.

This is because the period of rotation of Pluto is 6.38 days and Charon completes a revolve in its orbit around the planet in the same period of time, therefore, if we were standing on the surface of the planet, we would observe that Charon don't would have a relative movement.

This is seen from the space simulator spaceengine looks like ...





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