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Orbiting around the center of gravity only can be applied for two body systems. For many body systems it can be applied too as a careful approximation (like in
by leni536 11y ago
Orbiting around the center of gravity only can be applied for two body systems. For many body systems it can be applied too as a careful approximation (like in the article). The movement of a small planet in the middle couldn't be described by this however, since it's an approximate three body system now (the two pairs and the planet)-
There could be stable point's in the middle, I don't know about that. Most certainly it can't be described by this approximation.
- lagadu 11y agoLooking into it, couldn't a planet orbit one of the two stable Lagrange points between the two groups, L4 and L5? That wouldn't be "inside" the orbit though :(
- leni536 11y agoYeah, I would think that the quasi stable orbits would be L4, L5 or orbiting around any of the pairs. If you have a symmetric situation isn't the middle point exactly L1? That would be unstable. Edit: From Wikipedia: >The triangular points (L4 and L5) are stable equilibria, provided that the ratio of M1/M2 is greater than 24.96. So with a symmetric situation, where M1/M2=1 they wouldn't be stable either.