Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Newton's law...

Re: Newton's law...
gbaikie — (archived)

"This tells us that the Sun's gravity is ~200 times more important than the Moon's in determining the Earth's orbit."

Interesting, but what does it mean?
What if you did the math on say, Pluto and Charon?
Wouldn't Charon's gravity be more important than the Sun?
Or perhaps, does this means the "potential" Moons around Mercury or Venus would be less likely due Sun's gravity being significantly more?
Or how important is the Sun's gravity than compared Earth's in determining the Moon's orbit?
I guess my questions are what happens when the sun gravity is NOT ~200 times more important, such when it the same (or less) or far more than 200 (say a 1000 times).

Or relating it to your discussion of when the Moon was closer to Earth- at that distance the Moon would be more important than it currently is in determining Earth orbit. Hmm, that reminds me, instead of the center of gravity of the Earth/Moon system being inside the Earth, when Moon was closer would it have been above the Earth surface?

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