AS101 Study Guide - Final Guide: Orbital Inclination, Orbital Speed, Surface Gravity
Document Summary
Photo taken by new horizons july 14, 2015 (nasa/jpl) Pluto"s orbit is highly eccentric and pluto even spends 20 of its almost 250-year orbit inside the orbit of neptune (where it actually was from 1979 to 1999) (the two will never collide). Charon, about half the size of pluto although. 1/10th the mass (the ch in charon is pronounced hard, as in chaos - charon is named after the mythical boatman who carried the dead into the realm of pluto). Pluto at just under 20,000 km (earth"s moon is about 400,000 km away) and orbits pluto with a period equalling pluto"s rotation rate (6. 4 days) meaning it hangs continuously above the same point on pluto"s surface. So, if you were on pluto you would see charon, 10 times larger than our. Moon, hanging in the sky always at the same place in the sky neither rising nor setting.
