That circumstance is the key to Pluto’s survival despite its unusual orbit. The eccentricity of Pluto’s orbit and the fact that Pluto is less than half the size of any other planet were among ...

Pluto, for example, has a highly elongated orbit compared to the planets in our solar system and has an orbital eccentricity of 0.25. Earth has an orbital eccentricity of just 0.02. This new ...

Earth’s orbit around the Sun is not circular, but an ellipse that is slightly elongated with an eccentricity of 0.017. (An eccentricity of 0 is a circle, while the dwarf planet Pluto has a ...

Pluto and its moon Charon may have been briefly locked together in a cosmic “kiss”, before the dwarf planet released the smaller body and recaptured it in its orbit. Charon is the largest of ...

Charon is large in size relative to Pluto, and is locked in a tight orbit with the dwarf planet. A new simulation suggests how it ended up there. By Jonathan O’Callaghan Some 4.5 billion years ...

But the heavenly body – possibly a dwarf planet à la Pluto – isn't a frequent visitor. Located beyond Neptune, its extreme orbit circumnavigates the sun once every 25,000 years, taking it ...