Mondo Knows Facts

Pluto and Charon orbit a common centre outside Pluto body

The dwarf planet and its large moon form a double planet system

Charon is so massive compared to Pluto, roughly 12 percent of Pluto's mass, that the gravitational centre of mass around which both bodies orbit sits in open space between them. Because their barycentre lies outside Pluto's surface, Pluto and Charon function as a binary dwarf planet system.

Pluto-Charon double planet
Lanthanum-138 at English Wikipedia ยท Public domain ยท source

Where this comes from

NASA Science

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

More facts like this

Tags: pluto, charon, binary

Pluto and Charon orbit a common centre outside Pluto body: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
The dwarf planet and its large moon form a double planet system. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a space fact?
Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.