NATS 1560 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud, Lagrangian Point
8 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Pluto: pluto is a dwarf planet on the outer edge of the solar system. It is more similar in composition to the icy moons like callisto or triton: its orbit as well is much more elliptical than the other planets. It actually comes closer than neptune at its closest approach, and is almost twice as far at the furthest point. (ranges from 30-50 a. u. : the moon" charon of pluto is actually about 20% the mass of pluto. For this reason, the centre of gravity of this system is outside pluto. They orbit a common center that is not inside pluto as is the case for other planets and their moons. These two objects could be more truly considered a binary system. Pluto may actually be the one of the largest of a group of objects known as the kuiper belt objects. (this may also be the source of charon triton, sedna and eris) pluto along with the asteroid ceres, and.
