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submitted 5 months ago by Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net to c/curatedtumblr@sh.itjust.works
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[-] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 months ago

I thought for an object to be a satellite it's orbital point had to be located inside the body of the other entity.

[-] lunarul@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

There's currently no formal definition requiring that. By that definition, none of Pluto's five moons would be moons, since they all orbit the same barycenter.

There's a whole discussion about it here and it looks like it might be reconsidered in the future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(moon)#Classification

this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2024
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