Orbit and rotation

Pluto's orbital period is 248 Earth years. Its orbital characteristics are substantially different from those of the planets, which follow nearly circular orbits around the Sun close to a flat reference plane called the ecliptic. In contrast, Pluto's orbit is highly inclined relative to the ecliptic (over 17) and highly eccentric (elliptical). This high eccentricity means a small region of Pluto's orbit lies nearer the Sun [2][i] thanNeptune's. The PlutoCharon barycenter came to perihelion on September 5, 1989, and was last closer to the Sun than Neptune between February 7, 1979 and February 11, 1999. Pluto and Neptune [53] make their closest approach when it is at 27.960 AU In the long term, Pluto's orbit is in fact chaotic. Although computer simulations can be used to predict its position for several million years (both forward and backward in time), after intervals longer than the Lyapunov time of 1020 million years, calculations become speculative: Pluto is sensitive to unmeasurably small details of the Solar System, hard-to-predict factors that will gradually disrupt its [54][55] orbit. Millions of years from now, Pluto may well be at aphelion, at perihelion or anywhere in between, with no way for us to predict which. This does not mean Pluto's orbit itself is unstable, but its position on that orbit is impossible to determine so far ahead. Several resonances and other dynamical effects keep Pluto's orbit stable, safe from planetary collision or scattering.

Relationship with Neptune

Orbit of Plutopolar view. This "view from above" shows how Pluto's orbit (in red) is less circular than Neptune's (in blue), and how Pluto is sometimes closer to the Sun than Neptune. The darker halves of both orbits show where they pass below theplane of the ecliptic.

Despite Pluto's orbit appearing to cross that of Neptune when viewed from directly above, the two objects' orbits are aligned so that they can never collide or even approach closely. There are several reasons why. At the simplest level, one can examine the two orbits and see that they do not intersect. When Pluto is closest to the Sun, and hence closest to Neptune's orbit as viewed from above, it is also the farthest above Neptune's path. Pluto's orbit passes about 8 AU above that of Neptune, preventing a

collision. Pluto's ascending and descending nodes, the points at which its orbit crosses the [59] ecliptic, are currently separated from Neptune's by over 21. This alone is not enough to protect Pluto; perturbations from the planets (especially Neptune) could alter aspects of Pluto's orbit (such as its orbital precession) over millions of years so that a collision could be possible. Some other mechanism or mechanisms must therefore be at work. The most significant of these is that Pluto lies in the 2:3 mean motion resonancewith Neptune: for every two orbits that Pluto makes around the Sun, Neptune makes three. The two objects then return to their initial positions and the cycle repeats, each cycle lasting about 500 years. This pattern is such that, in each 500-year cycle, the first time Pluto is near perihelion Neptune is over 50 behind Pluto. By Pluto's second perihelion, Neptune will have completed a further one and a half of its own orbits, and so will be a similar distance ahead of Pluto. Pluto and Neptune's minimum separation is over 17 AU. Pluto comes closer to Uranus (11 AU) than it [58] does to Neptune. The 2:3 resonance between the two bodies is highly stable, and is preserved over millions of [60] years. This prevents their orbits from changing relative to one another; the cycle always repeats in the same way, and so the two bodies can never pass near to each other. Thus, even if Pluto's orbit were not highly inclined the two bodies could never collide

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