Does the Sun Orbit around the Sun-Jupiter Center of Mass?
Actually, the fulcrum is 1 mile farther from the Sun than previously thought!
Jupiter’s mass is about 1/1000 the mass of the Sun and Jupiter’s orbital radius is about 1100 times the radius of the Sun, so the center of mass the Sun-Jupiter system is just outside the Sun. Distance from the center of mass of the Sun-Jupiter system to the center of the Sun is 461,832 miles, which is greater than the Sun radius (which is 432,690 miles). Both Jupiter and the Sun orbit that center of mass.
Why we pay attention only to Jupiter of all the planets? — Because all other planets’ mass combined is about 1/3 of the Jupiter’s mass.
By Newton’s 3rd law of Action = —Reaction, the Sun is attracted to Jupiter as much as Jupiter is attracted to the Sun, and by Newton’s 1st law of mass and acceleration being inversely related (when force is fixed), we come to
understanding that it is by the same old Archimedes law of lever
where lever balances at the fulcrum at the distances inversely related to the masses.
BUT! Newton was not aware of time dilation, he thought of time flow being absolute, everywhere and always the same. Since Einstein, we know that time flow is variable, and my recent result [1] shows that even Newton’s 3rd law should be adjusted to Action = — D²×Reaction, where D is the time dilation factor, which around the Sun is D = 1.000002. Thus, the Sun is attracted by Jupiter less than Jupiter is attracted by the Sun. That increases the radius of the Sun’s orbit by that D-factor and moves the center of the Sun’s orbit about a mile farther from the Sun than previously thought: the distance from the center of the Sun’s orbit to the Sun’s center is 461,832 miles × 1.000002 ≈ 461,833 miles.
Why do engineers, besides scientists, care about “Sun wondering around”? Because, for example, $10 billion JWST (James Webb Space Telescope), recently placed at the “Earth second Lagrange point L2”
travels along with the Earth, and if not the Sun’s fluctuations, it would not require burning fuel once placed in L2. But because of the Sun’s fluctuations, burning fuel (from time to time) is needed to keep the JWST pinned there. Eventually, when JWST runs out of fuel, it will part away from that point, and it will become useless. There are no gas stations around L2, therefore, engineers take into account that expiration effect.
[1] Continue with “Classical Physics Beyond Einstein’s” free eBook in PDF, on Amazon or Google Books.
