2006-07-13 04:32:22 · 16 answers · asked by ? 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
5,913,520,000 km they measured it by a probe that went ther and used radio signals to find out
2006-07-13 05:21:16 · answer #1 · answered by Yndy'91 3 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Pluto is about 40 times as far away from the Sun as the Earth is. We know that from Kepler's third law. Back in 1630, Johannes Kepler developed his three laws of planetary motion, and the third one says that the time required for a planet to go once around the Sun is related to it's distance from the Sun by the simple mathematical equation P^2=A^3. We can see how long Pluto takes to go around the Sun just by plotting it's position on the sky over a period of years. We can then use Kepler's third law to immediately tell us that Pluto is 40 times as far from the Sun as the Earth is. The hard part is finding out how far the Earth is from the Sun, a distance that is called the astronomical unit. But that is another topic. See the source below if you want to know about that.
2006-07-13 05:15:39 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A good method for determining the orbital elements of a newly discovered planet or asteroid was devised by Karl Friedrich Gauss. It uses three angle-only position measurements (e.g. right ascension and declination) at three known times, as well as the Earth's heliocentric position at those times.
The distance to the planet or asteroid, though unknown at first, is solved for by playing two physical facts off against each other. One fact is that the planet's orbit must be an ellipse with the sun at the focus. The other fact is that the planet, moving along the orbit, must sweep out equal areas (in the sector from the sun) in equal times. That's how Pluto's distance was determined for the first time.
Pluto's orbital elements...
a = 39.48211675 AU
e = 0.24882730
i = 17.14001206 degrees
L = 110.30393684 degrees
w = 224.06891629 degrees
T = JD 2447775
By the way, the new planet's elements are...
a = 67.7091 AU
e = 0.4416129
i = 44.177 degrees
L = 35.8750 degrees
w = 151.3115 degrees
T ~ JD 2341129 (?)
2006-07-13 05:27:26 · answer #3 · answered by David S 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
5,913,520,000 km
The radar method of distance determination involves timing the interval between transmission of a radar pulse by a powerful radio telescope on Earth and the reception of its echo from the planet. Thus if EP, c and t are the Earth-planet distance, the velocity of radio waves and the time interval, respectively,
EP = ½ct.
2006-07-13 04:41:56 · answer #4 · answered by loligo1 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pluto isn't that far away.... Compare our planet to Andromeda, or even further galaxies, that is far... Or even to the nearest star other than the Sun
2006-07-13 04:44:52 · answer #5 · answered by pixellizedness 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A long ways. Lots of tape measures.
2006-07-13 04:36:13 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There was a probe launched by NASA that traveled to the outer part of our solar system. It calculated the distance to each planet as it passed them by.
2006-07-13 04:36:54 · answer #7 · answered by RedCloud_1998 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it is very far away for our means iof travel, the distance is measured using normal telescopes and confermed using red shift from the closest star
2006-07-13 22:18:38 · answer #8 · answered by Prof. Hubert Farnsworth 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
About 10 yards outside the back door, in a kennel that Mickey made especially for him!
2006-07-13 04:52:43 · answer #9 · answered by Colin S 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
satellites are launched by nasa, as they planted them across our univerese, they measure the distance as each planet orbited around them.
2006-07-13 07:00:19 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋