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[-] Pegajace@lemmy.world 29 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

No, because absolute size is not what makes a moon a moon. Our Moon is a moon because it directly orbits a planet, not a star. Charon is massive enough relative to Pluto that the former does not directly orbit the latter, but instead they both orbit a common barycenter located between them, making them a binary planetary system.

[-] DroneRights@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago

A binary dwarf planetary system

[-] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

I mean the earth and moon do the same thing, just on a much smaller scale.

[-] Pegajace@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Not quite. All two-body systems orbit a common barycenter, but the mass ratio of the Earth-Moon system is so lopsided that the barycenter is inside the Earth, not between them like with Pluto and Charon.

this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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