• Clairvoidance@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    I fucked up a little so I understand the confusion, stars are typically in capital letters, A, B, C.
    though clear distinctions are also made here. B, C, D implies a hierarchy of orbits, A is the primary gravitational pull in its system
    Aa, Ab, (etc.) is used when two (or more) stars have a common center of mass

    Real implications of this example:
    Kepler-16A and Kepler-16B have a planet that orbits both (but to be clear they do not having a common center of mass), so it is Kepler-16b, and I didn’t look it up but I assume it’s not 16ABb because there aren’t any A or B planets to differentiate it with
    Polaris Aa and Ab are orbiting around a common center of mass, and Polaris B orbits them from further away
    Castor has 6 stars, here’s an image
    Aa and Ab are still the main center of mass in this system

    as an added bonus, black holes do not have a naming convention yet, Sagittarius A* is just in the Sagittarius A region and * is to indicate an exciting or interesting object

    and to my knowledge, it is theoretically possible for a planet to orbit an Aa star without orbiting an Ab star but I don’t think we know of any, I assume it would be named like Aa b

    • Eheran@lemmy.fmhy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      When you say common center of mass, so you mean the as in something like… Once it is outside of the object? Otherwise I assume everything has a common center of mass with everything.

      Thanks for the info!

      • Clairvoidance@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Common center of mass means they spin around each other, currently the moon orbits earth, but long long in the future, even though the moon is smaller, it will have waned the pull of the earth to an extent where you both go around in the same circle, this happens quicker with objects the more equal in size they are

      • Clairvoidance@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Common center of mass means they spin around each other, having an equal gravitational pull against each other.
        Currently the moon orbits earth, but long long in the future, even though the moon is smaller, it will have waned the pull of the earth to an extent where you both go around in the same circle, this happens quicker with objects the more equal in size they are
        the space inside the circle they form is a point called the common center of mass because it’s where everything else around them will treat their gravity-source to come from, and both objects revolve around this center.