Question about Pluto and Charon(It's moon.).

[bandit4910]

Are Pluto and Charon apart of a Binary system? I\'ve heard from my science teacher that Charon orbits at a common point above plutos surface.

[RedDwarfIV]

Are Pluto and Charon apart of a Binary system? I\'ve heard from my science teacher that they orbit at a common point above plutos surface.

Pluto orbits itself?

[sal_vager]

Pluto and Charon orbit around a barycentre that is above the surface of pluto.

Wikipedia on Pluto and Charon, plus link in text to Barycentre.

[RC1062]

Apparently it is a binary system (wikipedia under Charon).

Pluto orbits itself?

No. Pluto and Charon orbit a point above Pluto\'s surface called a barycenter(?).

[RedDwarfIV]

I misread what he was saying, and it sounded like he said Pluto orbits itself.

[bandit4910]

Oops sorry about that. I need to work on my wording.

[Agamemnon]

actually... this is true for earth-moon as well... or for earth-sun... or for any planet-sun combo, etc... that they orbit about the common barycenter... it just usually is under the surface of the bigger object...

[Johno]

Yes, that\'s right.

During the 'Pluto: A planet or not?' arguments a few years back, one of the possible classifications that astronomers suggested was that Pluto should be called a 'binary planet'. They also suggested the Earth-moon system as one; but the difference between Pluto and Charon is much smaller.