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A comment on Rare system of five stars discovered. Parent comment

Re:Rare system of five stars discovered by nitrogen on Thursday July 09, 2015 @03:18AM (#9856571)
> But what could they be orbiting around?

>> a mutual centre of gravity

The math of gravity is fascinating. Objects can orbit each other, with nothing in the middle.

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Re:Rare system of five stars discovered by jeremysmyth on Thursday July 09, 2015 @05:56AM (#9856998)
You think that's good, try this: Objects can even orbit interesting points in space that are not themselves centers of gravity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point

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Re:Rare system of five stars discovered by Rexxar on Thursday July 09, 2015 @10:37AM (#9858056)
This is linked to orbit around Lagrangian points but it's more surprising: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_orbit
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Re:Rare system of five stars discovered by escherplex on Thursday July 09, 2015 @12:31PM (#9858932)
By extension it could be interesting to model the Lagrange-point space topology within this system and probe what object forms might have assembled themselves within the equivalent of L4 and L5 points. Of course, intense mutual solar winds would mitigate against that happening.
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