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pdonisyesterday at 7:58 PM2 repliesview on HN

Since the Moon's orbit is always concave towards the Sun, one could even argue that the Moon is a planet, not a satellite, it just happens to have an orbit that is closely coupled to that of another planet, Earth.

As I understand it, in fact, there was discussion about defining systems like Earth-Moon as double planets, but that didn't make it into the final definition.


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nephihahayesterday at 10:53 PM

I have heard people argue that we are in fact in a kind of binary planetary system. No other planet has such a large satellite relative to its size, until you get to the likes of Pluto etc.

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fluoridationtoday at 1:29 AM

>the Moon's orbit is always concave towards the Sun

Huh?

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