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Why can Pluto and Neptune never collide even when Pluto crosses Neptune’s orbit?
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Pluto
Pluto as observed by the New Horizons spacecraft, July 13, 2015.
Pluto and Neptune will never collide because Pluto is locked in a stabilizing 3:2 orbital resonance with the planet.1
This gravitational interaction means that for every three orbits Neptune completes around the Sun, Pluto completes exactly two. This precise synchronization ensures that the two bodies are never in the same place at the same time when their paths cross, keeping them at a minimum distance of approximately 17 astronomical units from each other.1