Positions, Orbit, and Mass of Pluto
Abstract
Positions and orbit of Pluto-Positions of Pluto were obtained from photographs taken by M. L. Humason in 1919 with the io-inch Cooke triplet and from photographs taken with the 60- and 100-inch reflectors 111 1930. Orbital elements were computed which include the perturbations of the four major planets. The resulting period is 247.6~68 years, which corresponds to a mean distance of 39.45743 astronomical units. The time of perihelion passage is 1989 Nov. 6.98 UT., and the eccentricity 0.24852. Determination of the mass of Pluto.-The perturbations of Pluto on Neptune were used to determine the mass. A least-squares solution of twenty-two observational equa- tions with the mass of Pluto and the corrections to four of the elements of Newcomb's orbit of Neptune as unknowns gave 0.94 ± 0.25 times the mass of the earth as the mass of Pluto
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- January 1931
- DOI:
- 10.1086/143288
- Bibcode:
- 1931ApJ....73....1N