this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] ODuffer@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago

Your mom....

[–] Thorry@feddit.org 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Your mom's so fat, she pushes the barycenter of the solar system outside of the diameter of the Sun

[–] The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org 0 points 4 days ago

Top tier comment right here!

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 0 points 4 days ago

No one objects orbits another. There are no stable orbits since there are no examples of two perfect point masses in an isolated space.

That’s why I lose my balance!

[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (3 children)

The way this is phrased makes it sound like there's a certain threshold where this starts happening. That's not right. Even a grain of dust wouldn't orbit the sun, they still orbit their common barycenter. A less misleading way of phrasing would be that Jupiter is massive enough that the barycenter of it and the sun actually lies outside the sun, which is still a cool fun fact.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Orbiting a point within the sun is still orbiting the sun.

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[–] BillBurBaggins@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (5 children)

I mean that's literally the point the image is trying to make. The last sentence says the point is outside the sun for Jupiter.

I don't think nitpicking the title achieves anything and it's not even misleading unless it's only taken in isolation.

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[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 4 days ago

I was going to complain about the use of "barycenter" instead of the more commonly known "center of mass". But after some searching, I guess barycenter is more obscure because it's more specific. I'm ok with that.

[–] WraithGear@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (4 children)

i mean, with that logic, nothing orbits anything

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 0 points 4 days ago (2 children)

No, this is actually really relevant. This is part of the logic applied to labeling Pluto a dwarf planet. Pluto and it's moon do this, Earth and our moon do not. Yes, obviously the center of mass of the two isn't the exact center of the earth but it's still within the earth.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Asking a physicist about the center of an object is like asking a Tumblr user about thr color of the sky. The only response will be "which one?" And a sigh of exhaustion

Center of volume ≠ center of mass ≠ center of systemic gravity ≠ center of lift…

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[–] WraithGear@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago

but the density of an object is variable. i mean you can define the diffrence between an orbit and a co-spiral to be based on the physical size of the denser planetary body containing the orbit center point, though that seems arbitrary.

[–] pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 4 days ago

For most bodies the barycenter, while not the same as the center of mass, is still inside the sun. This one isn't, making it notable

[–] fedditter@feddit.org 0 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Fun fact: You actually pull the Earth up with the same force it pulls you down.. Newton’s Third Law.

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[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 0 points 3 days ago

You're not wrong. Everything orbits the center of mass of the system, meaning the mass of the star and the body in orbit. And that is handy for astronomers, many exoplanets have been found using the Doppler spectroscopy method. Doppler spectroscopy measures the Doppler shift in the star's light as it is pulled towards and away from us by planets in orbit. The newest spectrographs are sensitive enough to detect a star's wobble caused by an Earth sized body in orbit. The barycenter is still within the star, but not at the center of the star's mass.

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 0 points 4 days ago

how much wobble does the earth add to sun? over 1m?

[–] bennypr0fane@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Do all the planets also orbit around that same barycenter, or does each planet have a different one?

I guess the all orbit around the solar system's center of mass (negligibly affected by the universal CoM), but that CoM probably moves around as the planets themselves move.

Relative to what, you might ask? That depends who you're asking 😉

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