Sothis A5 orbiting around nothing?

Thomas Wagner

T
The Starsystem Map shows me Sothis A5 is orbiting around Star Sothis A.

sothis1.jpg


But around what is Sothis A5 orbiting here? Can Planets orbit around nothing?

sothis2.jpg
 

MPL3D

MPL3D
Yes indeed, all bodies orbit a so called barycenter or center of mass.

These points can lay inside or outside a physical body.

The strange thing would be to not to find the twin body that causes the wooble or the orbit itself... Is that the case?
 

Screemonster

Screemonster
Where are A4 and A6? Can you get a screenshot of the system map in non-orrery-mode?

Sometimes you'll see planets that appear to be orbiting nothing, but they're actually orbiting the barycentre of a binary planet system.
 

varonica

varonica
Thomas Wagner said:
The Starsystem Map shows me Sothis A5 is orbiting around Star Sothis A.

View attachment 160824

But around what is Sothis A5 orbiting here? Can Planets orbit around nothing?

View attachment 160825
Click to expand...

That's not an orbit around anything, that's the path it follows due to the gravitational attraction of another body, as someone else mentioned, barycenters. Both bodies in a two body system have a effect on eacth other, the effect will often result in a body doing loops in space as the second body pulls it around. While the smaller can often be seen doing an obvious orbit around the larger, if the difference in size is not to large the bodies will appear to the eye to be doing an orbit around nothing, but they are actually doing an orbit around the point where the gravity from the two bodies cancels out.

The difference between a binary system of two bodies and a body with a moon is that in the latter the point around which the two bodies orbit is below the surface of the primary whereas in the former it's in space between the two bodies and called a barycentre. Systems of moer than two bodies also have barycenters, but the more bodies the more complicated the motions of all the bodies become.
 
Last edited:

Sapyx

Sapyx
Sometimes, you will find inthe game a space station that appears to be "orbiting nothing". Such a space station is actually orbiting an invisible comet. Comets have been added to the game since launch, but haven't been "switched on" yet. But comets are tiny, so you'll never find a planet orbiting one.
 

jnTracks

jnTracks
I've also seen objects that seem to be in Lagrange points of the star or another large body. They will often seem to have a little bit of a "wobble" orbit inside that point.

...could that be what you're talking about with regard to invisible comets? Are we explaining the same, or different things?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom