A history of the determination of Pluto's mass |
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| Authors: | RL Duncombe PK Seidelmann |
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| Institution: | Department of Aerospace Engineering, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA;Nautical Almanac Office, United States Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C. 20390, USA |
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| Abstract: | Lowell's value for the mass of Planet X was about seven times that of the Earth. Postdiscovery determinations of the mass of Pluto from analysis of the observed motions of Uranus and Neptune reduced this value to about one Earth mass. More extended analyses in the past 10 years have lowered this value to about one-tenth of an Earth mass. The mass so derived, however, fails to agree by a factor of 50 with that determined from the motion of the newly discovered satellite Charon. The discrepancy may arise from unmodeled effects in the motions of the outer planets. |
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