Message Forum: Re: And Then There Were Eight

Re: And Then There Were Eight

Posted By: Dave, on host 65.116.226.199
Date: Tuesday, August 29, 2006, at 19:54:08
In Reply To: Re: And Then There Were Eight posted by wintermute on Tuesday, August 29, 2006, at 17:18:47:

> In my more rebellious moments, I say there are
>only 4 planets; Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune.
>
> All else is rubble.
>

You could make an argument that there is only one planet: Jupiter. It is, after all, larger than all the other planets combined. It's so large, in fact, that it does not technically orbit the Sun. The Sun and Jupiter orbit a center of mass that is between the two.

(Yes, technically this is true of every object that orbits the Sun--but the Sun/Jupiter system is the only Sun/Planet system in the solar system where the center of mass of the system is above the solar surface.)

-- Dave

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Message:	> > In my more rebellious moments, I say there are > >only 4 planets; Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune. > > > > All else is rubble. > > > > You could make an argument that there is only one planet: Jupiter. It is, after all, larger than all the other planets combined. It's so large, in fact, that it does not technically orbit the Sun. The Sun and Jupiter orbit a center of mass that is between the two. > > (Yes, technically this is true of every object that orbits the Sun--but the Sun/Jupiter system is the only Sun/Planet system in the solar system where the center of mass of the system is above the solar surface.) > > -- Dave
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