How far beyond Pluto does the Sun's gravity effect objects?
@lookatdesktop (27156)
Dallas, Texas
March 21, 2016 5:01pm CST
Because there is the OORT CLOUD way out beyond the orbit of Pluto it is apparent the Sun has gravitational pull on objects well beyond Pluto's orbit, and Pluto's orbit takes over 200 or some odd years to complete one single rotation around our sun. And it is an elliptical one, not circular, so is this an indication that at Pluto's distance from our sun is not as strong at this point? Comets also that come from somewhere out there in the OORT cloud, beyond Pluto usually come quite close to our sun along an extreme elliptical orbit and then swing out back again but because this motion often reoccurs, must mean the Sun has a strong gravitational influence on even comets and meteors. It is true even that our moon is pulling away from Earth so many millimeters at a time. It might take millions of years but eventually our moon will appear smaller in our night sky to our great great X 10 factor grandchildren will experience.
So there is an area like a huge bubble that goes around our solar system with the sun at it's center and it goes way out far beyond Pluto's orbit and it is known as the Heliosphere. This is an area actually closer to the center of our solar system. The Oort cloud is actually much farther out. These areas have been determined to exist by their discovery by Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. To get tho the outermost region it will take about 40,000 years. Here is a link to a NASA pic of the final frontier of our solar system :
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2 responses
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
21 Mar 16
In theory the gravitational effect of the Sun has no limits, it just becomes smaller as the distance increases. Of course all bodies have gravitational effects, so there will a point at which other celestial bodies have a greater attraction.
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@lookatdesktop (27156)
• Dallas, Texas
21 Mar 16
then you would like this YouTube:
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@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
21 Mar 16
@lookatdesktop I will download and watch that later. Of course any suggestion of visiting Pluto is seriously science fiction these days because not only is the distance too vast, but the temperature would be outrageously cold.
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@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
22 Mar 16
@lookatdesktop We must not forget that Pluto will also have a very low gravity.
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@snowy22315 (208964)
• United States
21 Mar 16
Well astronomy can be fascinating for sure.
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@lookatdesktop (27156)
• Dallas, Texas
21 Mar 16
I think we tend to ignore space for the most part. We tend to focus mainly on clouds above and the ground below. Space is a place that is so far away it boggles the imagination.



