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I believe that NASA expected lots of craters on Pluto due to its close proximity to the Kuiper Belt, which is full of asteroids and other small objects. https:
by ojbyrne 11y ago
I believe that NASA expected lots of craters on Pluto due to its close proximity to the Kuiper Belt, which is full of asteroids and other small objects.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt
- 3JPLW 11y agoFull is quite relative. The Kuiper belt encompasses a ridiculously large volume of space.
- drewolbrich 11y agoSimilarly, the asteroid belt is "full of asteroids" that are mostly only a few meters across, with an average distance between each asteroid of a few million kilometers.
- zzzeek 11y agohow does Pluto's inclined orbit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plutoorbit1.5sideview.gif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plutoorbit1.5sideview.gif) affect its exposure to other Kuiper Belt objects? Is it still well within the cloud of objects at its greatest points of divergence from the ecliptic?