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Old 13-August-2008, 09:32 PM
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Robert Tulip Robert Tulip is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frankuitaalst View Post
A good simulation and evolution of the Solar systems barycenter can be found here :
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravit...arycenter.html
Thank you very much, this is precisely what I was looking for. I had never seen a picture of the SSB epitrochoid before. It removes the planets one by one starting from Jupiter and ending with Pluto, ranked by their affect on the SSB, to provide simple graphical pictures of the gravitational influence of each planet.

If I may, I have two further questions from looking at this material. Many thanks again for any possible advice.

It states "The Sun's period around the barycenter and Uranus' period around the barycenter match." I don't understand what this means. Can anyone explain it?

The SSB plot when Jupiter is removed returns exactly to its origin after three loops, rather than producing a set of overlapping 'spirograph' cycles. Is this correct, and if so why?
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