Will Neptune and Pluto ever collide?

[apollo2011]

Hi!

 

I was wondering, Neptune and Pluto's orbits cross over each other. There orbit time and length vary. In millions or even billions of years, won't they collide? At some point, their orbits will catch up to each other and they will be crossing over at the same moment and BANG! Will this do anything? Both are Gas Planets so they might just get their atmospheres and gravitational force screwed up. Just wondering!

[JaKiri]

No they won't.

[apollo2011]

Why not?

 

Can't it be mathematically proven that they will collide at some point?

[YT2095]

because basicly he`s right

 

the masses involved and also the distances negate such an occurance, Pluto would more than likely become a Moon of Neptune 1`st, and that scenario is just as unlikley even though they MAY cross paths on infrequent occasions

[apollo2011]

Oh.

[Sayonara]

Pluto and Neptune cross paths all the time - they have overlapping orbits.

 

[edit]

 

Well, I say "all the time", but their orbits are a lot wider than ours. You know what I mean

[VendingMenace]

Do their orbits really intercept though?

 

That is do the paths taken by the planets really cross eachother? Or is it just that depending on where the planets are one is farther away than the next?

[apollo2011]

Sayanora:

I know. That's why I started this post. I thought that because they cross, sooner or later, they would cross at the same time and collide.

 

VM:

Yes. For a short time, Neptune is the outer-most planet.

[iglak]

but do they really intercept? (like VM asked)

 

just because neptune becomes the outer-most planet for a while doesn't mean the orbits intercept (especially since pluto's orbit is slanted a bit)

[Sayonara]

I really ought to have read the first post more carefully.

 

Heh.

[apollo2011]

Oh. Let me check...

 

Ah Ha! Check out this:

QUESTION : Since Pluto's and Neptune's orbits cross

over eachother, could they ever collide some day?

 

ANSWER from Heidi Hammel on april 24, 1996 :

 

Neptune and Pluto could never collide. A scientist in Texas, Renu

Malhotra, has studied their orbits very carefully, and she has found that

they are in a special configuration called a "resonance." This means that

although their pathes do indeed cross, the two planets themselves will

never be together at the same place in their orbits at the same time

(which is what it would take for them to collide). So Pluto and Neptune

are both safe from one another.

DONE

 

That answers both questions. Considered this post closed! (technically speaking) Also, I got that off a NASA site. Go here:

http://passport.arc.nasa.gov/hst/QA/Neptune-Pluto_Orbits/Collision_of_Pluto_and_Neptune.1