General Question

ETpro's avatar

How do you think Sedna got its weird orbit?

Asked by ETpro (34605points) June 4th, 2012

Sedna is a trans-Neptunian object with a highly elliptical orbit having a perihelion of 76 Astronomical Units and an aphelion of 937 AUs. What do you think put Sedna into such a strange orbit, ranging from a close pass with the outer planets out into the clutter of the Oort Cloud. Astronomers think Sedna originally had a more regular orbit, but got pulled into the strange one it follows now. Do you think this disturbance happened recently? What most likely disturbed Sedna’s original orbit? What impact might its gravitational tug have on the orbits of the outer planets and dwarf planets, or on comet showers pulled from the Oort Cloud into the inner solar system?

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21 Answers

Rarebear's avatar

Here is everything you want to know about Sedna
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/sedna/

ETpro's avatar

@Rarebear Thanks. I really enjoyed the info the link provided.

Rarebear's avatar

It’s by the author of “How I killed Pluto and why it had it coming”

ETpro's avatar

@Rarebear The author’s right. If Pluto is a full-scale planet, our moon certainly is a planet as well; because it’s considerably larger and more massive than Pluto.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Where is that orbit thing I posted once???

Rarebear's avatar

No idea. It was cool though.

ETpro's avatar

@Dutchess_III & @Rarebear What orbit thing? Now you’ve really got my curiosity up.

Rarebear's avatar

It’s some website that Dutch found once, and she’s going to berate me for not remembering it.

Dutchess_III's avatar

It’s on a link here somewhere, in the past two years! YOU sent it to me @Rarebear! I had it saved on my old computer… :(

ETpro's avatar

Oh for crying out loud, @Rarebear & @Dutchess_III, don’t be such b’lamers! ~

Here it is.

Rarebear's avatar

Hey it’s fun blaming Dutch. It’s almost always her fault.

Dutchess_III's avatar

It is NOT!

@ETpro You’re awesome! How did you find it?? I like you better than @Rarebear now. ;}~

Rarebear's avatar

Thank God.

Rarebear's avatar

Here is the direct link to the applet, by the way. Thank’s for digging it up.
http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/my-solar-system/my-solar-system_en.html

ETpro's avatar

@Dutchess_III I found it using an arcane and little known trick. Enter the relevant keywords into the Fluther search box and hit the Return key. :-) I searched for your user name with the @ in front of it plus the word orbit.

@Rarebear Cool link. Thanks.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I didn’t think of that! I did a search, but I didn’t know about the @dutchess thing. Thanks!

Dutchess_III's avatar

How is @Rarebear‘s link any different from the one @ETpro posted? What am I missing?

Dutchess_III's avatar

Wait! I just realized that your link, @ETpro, just sent us to my post where I posted the link to the orbit thing. @Rarebear went to that link, found the link to the orbit thing that I posted, reposted it here and HE takes all the credit for the link!! That is just wrong, man! [Kicks @rarebear in the shin HARD

It is a very cool site, isn’t it @ETpro. Thenk you. Humph

ETpro's avatar

I love to be a peacemaker. :-)

Rarebear's avatar

Daddy she kicked me!

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