- #1
Cerenkov
- 274
- 53
Hello.
I've been reading about the Lagrange points... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_point ...and also about Pluto and its moons. Having discovered that the barycentre of the Pluto - Charon system lies at a point in space between the dwarf planet and its major moon Charon a number of questions have come to mind and I list them here to find out the answers and hopefully more.
1. Does the location of the aforementioned barycentre coincide with the location of the L1 point between Pluto and Charon?
2. According to the Wiki page... Although the L1, L2, and L3 points are nominally unstable, there are quasi-stable periodic orbits called halo orbits around these points in a three-body system. But, does Pluto and its moons qualify as a three-body system?
3. Is it possible for a natural body to remain in the kind of quasi-stable orbit mentioned above?
4. Is it possible for a carefully-placed space probe to remain in a quasi-stable orbit employing the kind of station-keeping used by the JWST?
5. At first glance the masses of Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx would seem to be insufficient to play any significant role in the orbital dynamics of Pluto and Charon. But is that so or am I mistaken in my assumption?
Thank you for any help given.
Cerenkov.
I've been reading about the Lagrange points... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_point ...and also about Pluto and its moons. Having discovered that the barycentre of the Pluto - Charon system lies at a point in space between the dwarf planet and its major moon Charon a number of questions have come to mind and I list them here to find out the answers and hopefully more.
1. Does the location of the aforementioned barycentre coincide with the location of the L1 point between Pluto and Charon?
2. According to the Wiki page... Although the L1, L2, and L3 points are nominally unstable, there are quasi-stable periodic orbits called halo orbits around these points in a three-body system. But, does Pluto and its moons qualify as a three-body system?
3. Is it possible for a natural body to remain in the kind of quasi-stable orbit mentioned above?
4. Is it possible for a carefully-placed space probe to remain in a quasi-stable orbit employing the kind of station-keeping used by the JWST?
5. At first glance the masses of Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx would seem to be insufficient to play any significant role in the orbital dynamics of Pluto and Charon. But is that so or am I mistaken in my assumption?
Thank you for any help given.
Cerenkov.