Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by Symmetry on Thursday July 19, 2018 @11:44AM
(#17567365)
I'm not sure why you would say that A isn't orbiting B if the barycenter of the orbit isn't inside B? We normally talk about Jupiter orbiting the Sun or Charon orbiting Pluto despite this not being true. I can see why someone might want that to be the definition for aesthetic reasons but I'm not seeing any evidence that it's the accepted definition. Wikipedia certainly says "near or within" instead of "within" in the most relevant section and I couldn't find anything clearer or contradicting that.
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Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by aeorgnoieang on Thursday July 19, 2018 @02:56PM
(#17569296)
> I'm not sure why you would say that A isn't orbiting B if the barycenter of the orbit isn't inside B?
If A and B were roughly the same mass then you'd say they're orbiting each other. We don't tho say or write that about Jupiter in my experience.