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minus-squarelunarul@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up4·2 months agoCharon is still a moon, nobody upgraded it to dwarf planet.
minus-squareMelatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up1·2 months agoI thought for an object to be a satellite it’s orbital point had to be located inside the body of the other entity.
minus-squarelunarul@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up1·edit-22 months agoThere’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
minus-squareMelatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up2arrow-down1·2 months agoThat seems terribly unfair. Downgrades but no upgrades?
Charon is still a moon, nobody upgraded it to dwarf planet.
I thought for an object to be a satellite it’s orbital point had to be located inside the body of the other entity.
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
That seems terribly unfair. Downgrades but no upgrades?