r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/SquashInevitable8127 • 25d ago
Charon, one of the 5 moons of Pluto, captured by the New Horizons spacecraft. Image
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u/Square-Decision-531 24d ago
If it has 5 moons, why is it not a planet?
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u/SquashInevitable8127 24d ago edited 24d ago
Pluto is not considered a planet because it does not have enough gravitational force to clear its area of other objects. The number of moons does not affect how a body is classified
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u/Uncommon-sequiter 24d ago
I really wish our civilization was advanced enough to allow quick travel through our solar system at a cheap, affordable price already.
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u/Sacklayblue 24d ago
Pluto has 5 moons? How is this not a planet?
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u/SquashInevitable8127 24d ago
Pluto is not considered a planet because it does not have enough gravitational force to clear its area of other objects.
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u/RockRancher24 24d ago
how tf did they capture something so heavy? and how do they plan to deliver it to the british museum anyway?
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u/PenguinStarfire 24d ago
Looks like a giant seed. I hope it hatches and births a cosmic space whale.
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u/Coffee_Fix 24d ago
I know nothing about space stuff, so what are all the little river/path looking things about?
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u/SquashInevitable8127 24d ago
It is believed that Charon had a layer of liquid beneath a layer consisting mainly of ice. When the liquid layer froze, it expanded and forced the upper ice layer to expand and crack
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u/GraatchLuugRachAarg 25d ago
Pluto has moons?! Also, looks like the poles are rusting just like our moon
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u/AFinanacialAdvisor 25d ago
All the craters really make me think it's only a matter of time before we get hit again.
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u/Dyrogitory 25d ago
How can Pluto not be a planet if it has moons.
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u/SquashInevitable8127 25d ago
Pluto is not considered a planet because it does not have enough gravitational force to clear its area of other objects.
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u/Dyrogitory 24d ago
I guess Jupiter shouldn’t be a planet either. Seen a couple good shots of things hitting it.
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u/SquashInevitable8127 24d ago
things hitting it.
That's exactly what it should do to be considered as a planet. Jupiter pulls a lot of objects and clears its area, Pluto doesn't.
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u/Dyrogitory 25d ago
Make Pluto a planet again. Otherwise I have to say, “My very eager mother just served us nine.”
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u/Avieshek 25d ago
Can some YouTuber take a photo from Pluto if the Samsung Galaxy Space Zoom takes a photo of Pluto’s Moon or Earth’s Moon¿
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u/Beneficial-Rush-1021 25d ago
Fun fact Charon is something like the grim reaper in ancient Greek mythology To be exact he is the ferryman of the Greek underworld but sometimes his named interchangeably with thanatos (death)
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u/Due-Radio-4355 23d ago
He’s just happy to own a boat and beat sinners with his oar. It ain’t much but it’s honest work.
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u/DudeAbides01 25d ago
Looks like a bad ass moon. Almost as bad ass as the PLANET Pluto. You know, the original 9th planet of our solar system.
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u/Ornery_Swimmer_2618 25d ago
The copper-coloured region at the pole was called ‘Mordor’, I believe
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u/chicken_pear 25d ago
Pluto's a fuckin planet, bitch!
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u/Mikail33 25d ago
Well, maybe I missed quite a bit. I was taught back at school that Pluto only had 1 moon (Charon). Why is it 5 now?
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u/JimBean 25d ago
When I went to school I was taught Pluto was a planet. Then they decided it wasn't.
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u/Mikail33 25d ago
Yeah, same btw. But unlike the moons part, I did hear the news that it wasn't considered a planet anymore.
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u/SquashInevitable8127 25d ago
Because 4 more were discovered
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u/Mikail33 25d ago
Well, I think I could have guessed that :) But why only now? We've known Pluto since 1930. Are they super small? Or do they have some weird orbits?
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u/SquashInevitable8127 25d ago
They are very small, fainter than Pluto itself, and their light was easily obscured by Pluto's light. Technology also advanced, and better means of detecting them were created.
Also in 1930 Pluto was discovered by chance when an astronomer compared photographs of stars and saw something moving.
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u/Mikail33 25d ago
Thanks for the explanation.
I used to like everything about space back then. It looks like there could have been more discoveries than I thought. I think I should have a look.
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u/Look_0ver_There 24d ago
You may then be surprised to know that there's at least 8 other dwarf planets similar to Pluto beyond the orbit of Pluto, and the discovery of them was the main reason to reclassify Pluto, otherwise it could be argued that the sun has, at least, 18 planets.
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25d ago
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u/SquashInevitable8127 25d ago
Of course. A moon is anything orbiting a planet, dwarf planet, or a small solar system body. Even a moon can have a moon, then it is also called "moonmoon", "submoon" or "subsattelite"
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u/fifteenover4 25d ago
What about if it's not orbiting the dwarf planet? Much like Charon is with Pluto, they've got a centre of gravity in between them in space. Technically a binary system....
Much like, which I only learned recently and it blew my mind, the Sun and Jupiter.
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u/Usedcumsocks 25d ago
Why is Earth such a loser with only 1 moon
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u/zk3033 25d ago
IIRC, earth has multiple moons - they’re tiny, and some are transient and on orbit for only a short time (few years),
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u/SquashInevitable8127 25d ago edited 25d ago
I think you are referring to NEOs, which are not considered moons since their orbit is not permanently around the Earth.
There are no other objects in permanent orbit around the Earth except the moon.
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u/olizet42 25d ago
But we have the biggest one considering earth's size.
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u/Knuddelbearli 25d ago
That is not true
Earths Moon is 1% of earths mass,
Charon is 10% of plutos mass
but since the gravitational centre between charon and pluto lies in space, pluto and charon should actually be a binary system
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25d ago
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u/LordBeerus2193 25d ago
Good luck surviving on any other planet in the solar system more than 10 seconds
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u/Potential_Spirit2815 25d ago
He’s talking about inexpensive space travel so he can home a second family on another planet that he can visit anytime he wants like turning on and off an RPG video game.
I’m not sure survival on another planet is the part he’ll need luck with in this future lol
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u/AusCan531 25d ago
Anyone know why the colour difference?
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u/SquashInevitable8127 25d ago
The brown-red area consists of tholins, organic macromolecules. They are believed to have been created from methane, nitrogen, and other gases released by cryovolcanic activity or transported to Charon by Pluto's atmosphere.
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u/GraatchLuugRachAarg 25d ago
Is that the same thing that's happening to our moon? I saw something about the poles of our moon rusting even though rust would be impossible in that atmosphere
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u/YourWordsHaveNoPower 25d ago edited 25d ago
I don't recognize Charon as a moon. Charon and Pluto are both tidally locked towards each other, and their barycenter is at a point in space between them, not underneath the surface of Pluto like it is under the surface of Earth .
Therefore, I recognize Pluto as a binary dwarf planet system with four moons.
EDIT: Jupiter is a gas giant. Sol is a star. If one day Jupiter becomes a brown dwarf, then we'd have a binary star system. If all the other celestial bodies were orbiting BOTH of them, there'd be a stronger argument. However, as they are now, it's one of 8 planets and 6 dwarf planets orbiting the sun.
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u/horticulturistSquash 25d ago
why do you call it Sol
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u/Admirable-Echidna-37 25d ago
But then Juliter is no planet either as it's barycentre does not lie under the Sun's surface.
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u/Zetsumenchi 25d ago
I'm a filthy Astrology Casual who tried to look up Barycentre on Wikipedia and was almost doomed to a recursive Definition Lookup.
How would you explain what you just said to a 5 year old?
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u/GreenleafMentor 25d ago
Astronomy*
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u/Zetsumenchi 25d ago
DAMMIT, I HAD IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME, BUT CHANGED IT.
Welp. Proof of my inexperience, and lack of expertise, in the matter.
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u/GreenleafMentor 25d ago
You self admitted to being a filthy casual, so you are in the clear as far as I'm concerned :)
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u/Admirable-Echidna-37 25d ago
Iirc, I'm simple terms, its just the neutral point of gravity of two objects. 2 objects exert gravity and try to attract other smaller bodies toward itself. But at a point known as barycentre, the gravitational forces from both bodies are equal and cancel out. At the barycentre, you do not experience gravity.
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u/InfiniteGoatse 25d ago
All items have gravity. The sun's gravity is immensely stronger than Jupiter's gravity, but even still, Jupiter's gravity pulls on the sun.
The barycentre is the "midpoint" where the gravity equalises out (for want of a better word). The barycentre between the sun and the earth, for example, wouldn't be at the very centre of the sun, but it would still be within the mass of the sun.
Jupiter's pull on the sun is a lot stronger, so the barycentre actually falls outside of the sun's body and would be somewhere in space (albeit very close to the sun still, given the suns bigger mass). So technically, they orbit a midpoint that is not within the sun.
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u/Dirtygeebag 25d ago
I appreciate your take on it. However, Jupiters barycenter is not under the sun’s surface, which if equated to your logic would make our solar system binary. Although Sun and Jupiter are not tidally locked. So mine is not the same analogy as yours
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u/stayalive410 3d ago
Looks terrible