Earth Doesn’t Orbit the Sun’s Centre: Understanding the Barycentre

It’s All About Balance: The Science Behind Earth’s Orbit Around the Sun.

Image by Mediamodifier from Pixabay

The information in my articles comes from what I have learned by reading many books on the subject. I will not pretend to be an expert, but I hope you find my short stories both interesting and educational.

The barycentre is the centre of mass of two or more bodies orbiting each other. I used to think that planets orbit around a star’s centre, but I was wrong.

In astronomy, the barycentre is the centre of mass of two or more bodies that orbit one another. A simple way to think of it is as a balancing act.

Look at the image above; you can see that the point where the two objects balance is closer to the one with the greater mass. It is the same with objects in space, such as stars, planets and moons. That balancing point is called the barycentre.

If two bodies have equal mass, the barycentre is exactly halfway between them.

If one body is significantly more massive than the other, the barycentre is located closer to the more massive body, often inside it.

Jupiter is by far the largest of the eight planets in the Solar System, with much more mass than any of the others. Because of this, the barycentre between Jupiter and the Sun lies outside the Sun’s surface. This makes the Sun wobble slightly as Jupiter and the Sun travel around, or orbit, that imaginary point.

For the other planets in the Solar System, their barycentres lie somewhere between the Sun’s centre and its surface.

Image by Валера Шумский from Pixabay

One way for astronomers to discover giant exoplanets is to look for stars that wobble as they move around their barycentre.

Many large exoplanets have been found using this method.

Exoplanets are planets that exist outside the Solar System.

The barycentre of the Earth and the Moon is situated within the Earth, at roughly 4,670 kilometres (2,902 miles) from its centre.

British spelling.

The end.

The universe is not a puzzle to be solved, but a story unfolding, one we’re only just beginning to read.

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