this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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Pluto's Orbit (mander.xyz)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago (3 children)

How can we even know it's a planet when we haven't observed a single orbit, yet?
Maybe it's just a really big comet.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

We've observed enough of its orbit to know what shape it is.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

How can you be so sure it doesn't just decide to leave

[–] MintyFresh 12 points 5 days ago

And who could blame it?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It's not really big. There are multiple Pluto like planetoids. Also there is a hunk of rock in the asteroid belt youcould name a planet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Ceres is more than a third of the mass of the asteroid belt. It's at least an order of magnitude bigger than anything else in its orbit. It's hardly a hunk of rock

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

There's also not that much rock, only 73% of the mass. The rest is ice and mud, with half it's volume being water in some form.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

By measuring how fast it's moving and where it is you can find the orbit