Solar eclipse on Pluto

A solar eclipse on Pluton occurs when one of the satellite of this dwarf planet - Charon, Hydra or Nix - eclipse the Sun, seen from surface.

Mechanics

An eclipse can occur only when the nodes ascending or descendant of the satellites, i.e. the points where them Orbite crosses the plan of the ecliptic of Pluto, are aligned with the apparent position of the Sun seen since dwarf planet, which is not possible that in two places along the orbit of Pluto. On the other hand, the three satellites sharing the same orbital plan, this situation is possible at the same time for all the three.

Types of eclipses

Charon has an angular diameter from 3 to 4 ° seen surface of Pluton. The angular diameter of the Sun being him of 40 " with 1 ' (that is to say 200 times less), at the time of an eclipse, a great proportion of the surface of Pluto knows a total eclipse. On the other hand, the partial solar eclipses are rare.

Hydra has an angular diameter of 2 ' with 8 ' and Nix of 3 ' to 10 ' (the exact sizes of these satellites are not yet known). Solar eclipses are thus also possible for these two objects, but their duration will be less than for those caused by Charon.

Frequency

The last period during which solar eclipses could occur on Pluton is held of August 1985 in June 1990. Seen Earth, Charon has also forwarded in front of Pluton with each revolution, which made it possible to refine the measurement of the diameters of the two objects.

The next period will occur between July 2103 and March 2117. For this period, a solar eclipse will occur in at least a point of the surface of Pluto to each revolution of Charon. The maximum duration of such an eclipse will be from approximately 4 min 21 S.

See too

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