Plots of the aligned orbits of the plutinos and classical objects. Plotted by a program written by Eurocommuter.
Both plots
The nodes of the orbits are brought to 270°; and the perihelia to 0° to simplify the comparison of the perihelia and aphelia
Objects plotted: classical in blue, plutions in red.1
Polar view
The aligned orbits are further reclined onto the ecliptic (i.e. rotated around the line of nodes by an angle opposite to the inclination) to allow for easy comparison of perihelia and aphelia.
Polar coordinates
Distance from the Sun (the small gold disk) in AU.
Argument not drawn
Yellow circle: 30AU (~Neptune’s orbit)
Ecliptic view
Projection of the aligned orbits on the plane x,z ((looking at the ecliptic from the edge); the point of view is the ascending node.
Polar coordinates.
Axis: distance form the Sun; perihelia on the left, aphelia on the right.
Angle: orbit inclination [°]
Yellow arc: 30AU (Neptune’s orbit) perihelion
Footnotes
1For roughly a half of known TNO the orbits are not yet known with the precision sufficient for the classification (a particularly delicate task for resonant objects).
Data source
Minor Planet Center Orbit database as of Feb 14th, 2006 except for resonant orbits' classification. Minor Planet Circular 2005-X77 was used instead.
Licensing
I, the author of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses:
A cubewano is any substantial Kuiper belt object, orbiting beyond about 41 AU and not controlled by resonances with the outer planets. ... Major features of the Solar System (not to scale): The Sun, the eight planets, the asteroid belt containing the dwarf planet Ceres, outermost there is the dwarf planet Pluto (the dwarf planet Eris not shown), and a comet. ... The outer solar system (as opposed to the outer planets) is that part of the Solar System which begins at roughly the orbit of Neptune and terminates at maximum orbit distance, approximately one Light Year from the sun in terms of orbital measurements. ...
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