I know the sun is one of the foci in the solar sytem, but what is the other?

Question

I was wondering what the other foci in the solar sytem would be, considering the sun is one of them. What would it's location be in miles from the sun? And is the sun the center focus?

Answer 1

If you imagine a solar system that includes the sun and the Earth,and no other bodies, the Earth would travel about the sun in an ellipse (strictly speaking, the Earth and the sun would travel around their common center of gravity in ellipses). An ellipse has two foci, which are points that define the ellipse in the same way that a point defines the center location of a circle. Because the sun is so large and the orbit is so nearly circular, both of the foci lie near the center of the sun So it is not correct to say that one of the foci is the sun -- both foci are in the sun, but they're really just mathematical points that define the shape of the orbit.

When you add more planets to the mix, things get much more complicated, but one can think of each approximately elliptical orbit separately, and then there is a different set of foci for each pair of bodies if one neglects the influence of the other bodies.

Answer 2

There is nothing at the second focus except the occasional drifting meteor which will pass through the focal point and them move on.
Also keep in mind that the orbits of the various planets precess and have different eccentricities and so the elliptical orbits do not line up. This means that no two planets share the same second focus.
It is a good question, and a sense of symmetry would suggest that something has to be there, but there isn't. Beware of that kind of thinking. It is that kind of thinking that long ago made everyone so certain that the earth was the center of the universe and that the orbits of all the planets had to be perfect circles.

Answer 3

The closest thing to a secondary foci would be the 2nd most massive object in the solar system...simply because of it's gravitational pull....that would be the planet Jupiter. I would think that you could probably list all the other foci in descending order by mass...in this order...Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Earth, Venus, Mars. After that would actually be a couple of moons: Titan, Triton, Ganymede, Callisto----THEN planet Mercury.
Jupiter is 483.88 million miles from the sun...and yes, the sun is the center foci.

Answer 4

A foci is a mathematical construct. You can have two foci in an elliptical orbit with the sun in one foci. You can do this for one planet, or you can do it (far more complex) for the total sum of all planet and planetoids and chunks of rock in orbit. With the sun in one foci and empty space in the other. (Not one of the planets.)

But you don't have to place the sun in one foci. It is usually done to make the math simpler but the silly formula for an elliptical orbit is just a mathematical formula.

Because the sun is not stationary, the paths of the planets, anything orbiting the sun, are not ellipses. They are more like helical ellipses, whatever that would be called. And because of their minute gravitational attractions for each other, they are not really any exact mathematical formula. Just approximations.

To confuse the formula with reality is to make the fundamental error of reification, where you confuse the model with reality.

Answer 5

The sun is our center focus considering the eight planets of our solar system and Pluto all revolve around the sun. If you think about our world does revolve around the sun.

Some other thing to consider is the asteroid belt that separates the inner and outer planets. The inner planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Than there would be the asteroid belt. The outer planets consists of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

I'm not sure if this what you are looking for.

Answer 6

Solar System Ellipse

Answer 7

ME!