A rough average of the distance between Earth and Pluto = 3,667,000,000 miles
That's a difficult question to answer precisely. Pluto's average distance from the Sun is 39.4 AU. (An AU is an Astronomical Unit and is defined as the average distance between the center of the Earth and the center of the Sun.) One AU equals 92,955,807 million miles, or about 93 million miles, but Pluto's distance from the Sun ranges from 29.7 to 49.3 AU. So, depending on the orbits of Pluto and Earth, the distance between the two could be anywhere from 28.7 AU (Earth directly between Pluto and Sun when Pluto is closest to the Sun) to 50.3 AU (Earth directly opposite Sun from Pluto when Pluto is farthest from the Sun). However, keep in mind that an AU is an average and that Earth's actual orbit varies anywhere from 91 to 94.5 million miles.
Pluto orbits the Sun at an average speed of 4.66 km/sec.
Pluto
When observing Pluto from a distance of 5.91 trillion miles (5910000000000 miles), you would be looking at Pluto as it was about 4 hours and 4 minutes ago. This is because the speed of light is finite and it takes time for the light from Pluto to reach the telescope on Earth.
Here's a rough, back-of-the-envelope, order-of-magnitude, conceptual estimate:Earth's average distance from the sun is 93 million miles.Pluto's average distance from the sun is 3.67 billion miles.So, over the course of a few million years, the average minimum separation (per orbit) between Pluto and Earth is about 3,577,000,000 miles.The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second.At that distance and speed, the time to travel from Earth to Pluto = (3,577,000,000 / 186,282) = 5hours 20 minutes
Radio waves travel at essentially the speed of light in space, and that is a known value. So if you know the exact distance between Earth and Pluto, you can divide the distance by the speed to see how long a radio signal from Earth will take to reach there. Of course, during the year the time will vary, because the distance will vary.Average distance of Pluto from the Sun: 5.874 billion kilometersAverage distance of Earth from the Sun: 149.6 million kilometersDistance from Earth to Pluto ~ 5.724 billion kilometersSpeed of radio signal (light): 299792.456 kilometers per secondDividing: 5.724 x 109 / 2.998 x 105 = 1.91 x 104 seconds = 5.3 hours(and of course, to send it and receive a reply would take twice that time)---Absolute closest distance (4.285 billion km) -- 4.0 hoursAbsolute farthest distance (7.463 billion km) -- 6.9 hours
No
Roughly 308 minuites (this will vary depending on where Earth and Pluto are in their orbits).
No. The stars of the constellations are many light yearsfrom Earth. Pluto is only about 5½ light hours from Earth.
Yes. Pluto gets light from the sun, but far less than Earth does.
Pluto orbits the Sun at an average speed of 4.66 km/sec.
Because earth is much, much closer to the sun that Pluto.
Pluto
When observing Pluto from a distance of 5.91 trillion miles (5910000000000 miles), you would be looking at Pluto as it was about 4 hours and 4 minutes ago. This is because the speed of light is finite and it takes time for the light from Pluto to reach the telescope on Earth.
Here's a rough, back-of-the-envelope, order-of-magnitude, conceptual estimate:Earth's average distance from the sun is 93 million miles.Pluto's average distance from the sun is 3.67 billion miles.So, over the course of a few million years, the average minimum separation (per orbit) between Pluto and Earth is about 3,577,000,000 miles.The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second.At that distance and speed, the time to travel from Earth to Pluto = (3,577,000,000 / 186,282) = 5hours 20 minutes
Radio waves travel at essentially the speed of light in space, and that is a known value. So if you know the exact distance between Earth and Pluto, you can divide the distance by the speed to see how long a radio signal from Earth will take to reach there. Of course, during the year the time will vary, because the distance will vary.Average distance of Pluto from the Sun: 5.874 billion kilometersAverage distance of Earth from the Sun: 149.6 million kilometersDistance from Earth to Pluto ~ 5.724 billion kilometersSpeed of radio signal (light): 299792.456 kilometers per secondDividing: 5.724 x 109 / 2.998 x 105 = 1.91 x 104 seconds = 5.3 hours(and of course, to send it and receive a reply would take twice that time)---Absolute closest distance (4.285 billion km) -- 4.0 hoursAbsolute farthest distance (7.463 billion km) -- 6.9 hours
The trip would only take 5.64 seconds to reach Pluto (about 4.7 billion miles) at that speed.
Pluto's gravity is relatively light. It is less than seven percent of earth's gravity: 0.067g (1.0g is one earth (g)ravity)