Pluto in size of Charon and Pluto has prompted some astronomers to call it a double dwarf planet. The system is also unusual among planetary systems in that each is tidally locked to the other, which means that Pluto and Charon always have the same hemisphere facing each other. From any position on either body, the other is always at the same position in the sky, or always obscured. This also means that the rotation period of each is equal to the time it takes the entire system to rotate around its barycenter. In 2007, observations by the Gemini Observatory of
Quasi-satellite known to have accidental quasi-satellites. In the case of Pluto, the known accidental quasi-satellite, 15810 Arawn, is, like Pluto, a plutino, and is forced into this configuration by the gravitational influence of Neptune. This dynamical behavior is recurrent, Arawn becomes a quasi-satellite of Pluto every 2.4 Myr and remains in that configuration for nearly 350,000 years. Quasi-satellite A quasi-satellite is an object in a specific type of co-orbital configuration (1:1 orbital resonance) with a planet where the object stays close to that planet over many orbital periods. A quasi-satellite's orbit around the Sun takes exactly the same time as the