Are we really orbiting around the sun?

Question

Or are we, as well as the sun, orbiting around the center of mass of the solar system? I mean, considering that all the planets should be pulling the sun is some way, then shouldn't the sun also be going around a single point? If so, then by how much? And does this vary depending on where the planets are?

Thanks.

Answer 1

its called a BARYCENTER,



Technically, what is going on is that the Earth, Sun and all the planets are orbiting around the center of mass of the solar system



Every single object in the solar system, from the gargantuan sun to the tiniest speck, exerts a gravitational pull on everything else. The solar system is basically a massive game of tug of war, and all of the yanking balances out at a specific point: the center of mass, or "barycenter." Everything in the solar system orbits around that point. Sometimes, it's almost smack dab at the Sun's center. Right now, the barycenter is just outside the Sun's surface. But it's constantly changing depending upon where the planets are in their orbital paths.



Because the Sun holds 99.87% of all the mass in the solar system, it's always going to win the tug of war. Even if all the planets were perfectly lined up on one side of the Sun, the center of mass would be just 800,000 kilometers off the surface of the Sun. That sounds like a lot, but remember, our solar system is big! Such a barycenter would be roughly 70 times closer to the Sun than the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury.

Answer 2

You're correct, in that we're not orbiting the *exact center* of the sun's mass... We orbit what's called the barycenter - the center of mass for the sun and Earth - which just happens to be deep inside the sun... but, Earth's gravitational pull causes the sun to 'wobble' just a bit; and, you'll also need to consider all the other planets, dwarf planets, and other debris in orbit about the sun. While the sun is 99.9% of all the mass in the solar system - and, it's not inaccurate to say we all orbit the sun - there is *some* gravitational mechanics at play with all the other bodies as well.

Answer 3

Correct, an orbit is around the centre of mass. But as the Sun contains over 99% of the mass of the solar system, the centre of mass is so close to the centre of the Sun as to make no odds. It's not far wrong to say we're orbiting the Sun.



Imagine a ping-pong ball orbiting a bowling ball. Yes, they would be orbiting the centre of mass of the combined system, and that means the bowling ball would be wobbling a little from side to side, but the bowling ball is SO much heavier that it would be hardly enough to notice.

Answer 4

The barycentre of the Solar System is usually just above the surface of the Sun, in the direction of Jupiter (more or less -- because Saturn also has great influence on the position of the barycentre).



When Jupiter is on one side and the other giants (especially Saturn) are on the other side of the Sun, then the barycentre is inside the Sun's sphere.



The Sun does orbit this barycentre, with a weird orbit made up of the influence of all the other planets - especially Jupiter. If someone from outside was observing our Sun to detect this wobble, they would first detect the primary period of 11.8 years (because of Jupiter) and a secondary period of 29.5 years (Saturn).



Even these two periods would be very tricky to observe (the change in the Sun's orbital velocity is very, very small), and they would hide the other periods caused by the smaller planets.



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In the same manner, Earth and Moon are orbiting each other (the barycentre is inside Earth's sphere), and it is this barycentre that is in the "nice elliptical" orbit around the Sun. Earth and Moon, individually, are zigzagging back and forth along this ellipse, with the Moon zigging when Earth is zagging, and vice-versa (the Moon's zigs being 80 times larger than Earth's zags).



The "nice ellipse" itself is changing slightly from year to year (by roughly 500 km) because of the gravitational interference from the other planets (mostly Jupiter and Saturn).

Answer 5

The planets in the Solar System orbit the sun. And the Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. At least that's what my science book says.

Answer 6

Since the sun is so massive, the center of orbit is inside the sun. Yes, the sun wobbles a little as the planets pull on it as they go around.



The sun holds 99.8 percent of the solar system's mass, so it doesn't move much!



IF we had 2 equal mass suns, they would orbit around a central point between them.

Answer 7

We are orbiting around the centre of mass of the entire solar system, called the barycentre. The barycentre of the sun and all the planets, asteroids, moons, comets and dust constantly changes as everything is constantly moving. Depending on the positions of the planets, the barycentre is sometimes below the surface of the sun and sometimes above the surface but it is never higher than the sun's corona

Answer 8

All the planets are orbiting the sun as it has 90+% mass and angular momentum of the entire solar system. The sun is orbiting the galaxy and its current direction is towards the constellation Hercules. During the lifetime of our solar system the sun has been around the galaxy 18 times.

Answer 9

Have you seen self centering spin dryers? They adjust the centre of spin to bring the motion into balance. So you are right the planets do pull on the sun and if they all lined up, that force would be magnified but really the Mass of the Sun is so much greater than the planets, it would not be move from the centre. The Sun contains more than 99.8 of Mass in the Solar System.

Answer 10

Actually your partly right, the sun is orbiting the central point as well, which is inside the sun. Jupiter, however, orbits a point outside the sun

Answer 11

You're right with the latter assumption. Everything in the solar system, the sun included, orbit a common center of mass known as the "barycenter."

Answer 12

All objects in a stellar system, including our Solar System, orbit a common gravitational point called the barycenter. As Paul says, and his link shows, sometimes the barycenter is inside of the Sun and sometimes outside of it. The multiple answers assuring you it is always inside the Sun are wrong on that point.

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Answer 13

Technically we're orbiting the centre of mass of the solar system as is the Sun. Sometimes the centre of mass of the solar system is inside the volume of the Sun and sometimes it's outside.



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Solar_system_barycenter.svg

Answer 14

Yes we are orbiting around the sun. So that there are so many climate changes is occur.

Answer 15

You are correct, and that wobble of the star around the center of mass is how astronomers are detecting the existence of planets around other stars, as well as how massive and what kind of orbits those planets have. As you can imagine, that takes pretty accurate measurement.

Answer 16

The Planets do excert a certain pull on the Sun with their Mass but it evens out in our Grand Celestial Waltz.

If you compare a Table Tennis Ball to a Basketball, that would be comparable.

Chuck in a few Marbles while you are at it as Comets..

Answer 17

A black hole has infinite mass, so theoretically at least, everything orbits a black hole.

Answer 18

Earth does

Answer 19

As a matter of fact, yes.

Answer 20

yes to both

Answer 21

https://youtu.be/0jHsq36_NTU