Barycenter (Noun)
Meaning
(astronomy) the common center of mass around which two or more bodies revolve.
Classification
Nouns denoting spatial position.
Examples
- The barycenter of the Earth-Moon system is actually located inside the Earth, about 4,700 kilometers from the planet's center.
- The binary star system's barycenter is the point around which both stars orbit each other.
- In the Pluto-Charon system, the barycenter is located outside of Pluto, due to Charon's relatively large size.
- The barycenter of the Jupiter-Sun system is actually located just outside the Sun's surface, due to Jupiter's massive size.
- The barycenter of a binary asteroid system can be used to determine the masses of the individual asteroids.