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Coding chess (lemmy.world)
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[-] CrazyLikeGollum@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Some large asteroids have moons too.

this leads to the question: are they still considered a moon when the barycenter is in the space between them?

[-] CrazyLikeGollum@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

There is no clear definition of what constitutes a moon other than it being a body that orbits another body that orbits the parent star.

There are some astronomers who say the dividing line between a moon-planet/dwarf planet/asteroid system and binary (or more) planet/dwarf planet/asteroid system is whether or not the barycenter of the orbits is within one of the bodies or not.

And fun fact: if that definition gained acceptance, it would mean that the Pluto-Charon system would go from a dwarf planet-moon system to a binary dwarf planet system. Charon could get a promotion.

this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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