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
Dwarf planet has itself been somewhat controversial, as it could imply that these bodies are planets, much as dwarf stars are stars. This is the conception of the Solar System that Stern promoted when he coined the phrase. The older word "planetoid" ("having the form of a planet") has no such connotation, and is also used by astronomers for bodies that fit the IAU definition. Brown states that "planetoid" is "a perfectly good word" that has been used for these bodies for years, and that the use of the term "dwarf planet" for a non-planet is "dumb", but that it was motivated