Posted on 02/27/2011 5:17:43 PM PST by SunkenCiv
It is possible that such a phenomenon could occur when matter around a newborn star forms into planets. In a planet's orbit around a star, there are two places where a third body can safely orbit. These spots, known as Lagrange points, are 120 degrees in front of and behind whichever body is smaller. The discovered co-orbiting planets, located in the four-planet system KOI-730, are always 120 degrees apart, permanent fixtures in each others' night skies.
Fifty million years after the birth of our solar system, the moon may have formed from the debris of a collision between Earth and a Mars-sized body named Theia. For this to be true, Theia would have to have hit earth at a relatively low speed. Richard Gott and Edward Belbruno of Princeton University say that this could only have happened if Theia had originated in a Lagrange point. The discovery of the KOI-730 planets shows that it is possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
Thank you — they usually muck up science reporting in the guise of looking smart.
If it means the LARGER body is the one does the peculiar Figure-8 thing at the Lagrange point, I could see the reference to the sizes...
Yes, that is what the text said. Draw a circle on a piece of paper. Draw points on the circle 120 degrees apart from each other. You should have three points all equidistant. No matter where you put the large body in relation to the smaller body it will be 120 from both Lagrange points.
OK, but the size of a Lagrange point is something entirely different than the question of whether an LP is 120 degrees in front of and behind the smaller body or the larger body.
I have one thing to say to that...
The L4 & L5 are SIXTY DEGREES leading and trailing of the planet involved.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
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LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
You got it! I’m glad because I had no idea how to proceed to give a clearer explanation. I was at the outer limit of my mental orbit. ;^)
No, not at all. What happened to 120 degree separations?
I got 2 planets in a crazy elliptical orbit around a third.
In fact, the cumulative mass at any of the Lagrange points can not be greater than a small fraction to the planet. You might get something the size of the earth into Jupiter's L4 or L5 but you couldn't get something the size of Saturn. The two masses would destroy each others orbit.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Finally, an answer to the question.
That is one cool toy.
This is a great picture! Painting, whatever, it’s not real, right? Some sort of graphics?
It’s an artist’s conception, but I agree, it’s pretty cool.
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