What Caused Pluto's Unusual Orbit and Formation of its Moons?

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SUMMARY

Pluto's unusual orbit and the formation of its moons are attributed to a significant collision with a comet, which was approximately 75% of Pluto's mass. This impact displaced Pluto from its original orbit around Neptune, resulting in an eccentric trajectory that extends far beyond Neptune. The debris from the collision, including dust and ice, was captured by Pluto's gravity, leading to the formation of its moons: Charon, Nix, and Hydra. The existence of a crater from the impact remains uncertain due to insufficient imaging data.

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  • Understanding of celestial mechanics and orbital dynamics
  • Familiarity with the characteristics of Pluto and its moons
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  • Basic comprehension of gravitational interactions in space
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  • Research the impact theory related to celestial bodies, focusing on Pluto and Neptune
  • Explore the gravitational dynamics of moon formation from debris
  • Investigate the imaging techniques used in planetary science for crater analysis
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Astronomers, planetary scientists, and educators interested in the dynamics of celestial bodies and the formation of moons in the context of impact events.

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Theory of Pluto's Disruption of Orbit
Several hundred millennia ago, Pluto was originally a miniscule satellite (about 75%-65% of it's current mass) of larger Neptune when a comet (being 6/8 of the mass of pre-collision Pluto) struck Pluto with as much force to push Pluto out of orbit around Neptune, about 350 million kilometres before both planets make a second meet. This initiating force results in Pluto unusual, eccentric orbit path extending far beyond Neptune's. The dust, debris, ice and shattered center left floating after the impact was captured by Pluto's gravitational field. The floating ice and debris then collected on the shattered pieces of the comet which then shaped the fragments into spherical balls which then became Pluto's moons, Nix, Hydra, and the largest being Charon. It is unknown whether the crater is still remaining on Pluto due to in sufficient imaging (which could possibly be the dark spot in the images.
 
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Can you provide us with any links for this theory? Note that personal theories are not permitted on PF.
 
Can you explain how you came up with this idea. People used to think there was a human face on Mars until NASA took closer pictures. Your idea sounds credible but somebody has to prove it.
 
cristo said:
Can you provide us with any links for this theory? Note that personal theories are not permitted on PF.

Actually, I got my information off of Wikipedia. Yet it's a personal theory. I'm new so I wouldn't really now much.
 
Jaramo1 said:
Actually, I got my information off of Wikipedia. Yet it's a personal theory. I'm new so I wouldn't really now much.

Welcome to PF. As I said, we do not permit personal theories here, except in the Independent Research forum: check out the global guidelines as linked to in my signature.
 

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