Thanks for clarifying; I know tone is hard to convey on the internet. Sarcasm and “gotcha” replies have been the default tone since the beginning, even if that’s not the poster’s intent. I honestly was curious what you meant :)

My favorite thing about this community is that while I come for the memes, there’s almost always something new to learn in the comments. Or a knew line of inquiry where I can start looking into videos or articles to learn more.

This is what I love about this community. Come for the memes, stay to learn something new.
I’m double-dipping for dopamine.

I’ve often thought that ‘clearing’ it’s orbit is misleading. I believe the definition ought to be changed to ‘controls’ or ‘governs’ its orbit. This allows for objects in stable L4/L5 locations without inviting the caveats that ‘clearing’ needs.

Help me understand the point you are trying to make. Are you trying to hand-waive categorization as superfluous to developing broader understanding?

Natural satellites fall within the primary body’s Hill sphere, where the gravity of the larger mass dominates. The Earth/Moon system co-orbits the sun. Saturn has two satellites that orbit each other, and that system co-orbits Saturn.

The Earth/Moon system does not qualify as a binary planet because it does not meet the L4/L5 instability threshold. In a system of two orbiting masses, the larger needs to have at least 25x the mass of the smaller for the system to have stable L4/L5 points. Earth is ~80x more massive than the Moon, allowing the system to have stable L4/L5 points, and is therefore a satellite system.

Please accept this hug from an internet stranger that is likely heading down the same road… hoping the symptoms end up being a huge nothingburger, but if not then I’m going to miss my hobbyist equipment.