Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2022 September 2
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September 2[edit]
Median of a binary star and general relativity[edit]
Imagine a binary star with two stars of the same mass. Between them there is a path where gravity cancels out for an object with a speed well above their orbital speed and coming from infinity (almost a straight line). In this case, what does the theory of general relativity predict? For the object, the curvatures of the space-time that it undergoes on its way between the two stars add up or cancel each other out? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Malypaet (talk • contribs) 20:16, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- Sorry, it's more complex. On the median in question there is an equal attraction of the two stars, in the distance they add up and in the middle (barycenter) they cancel each other out. Malypaet (talk) 21:25, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- See Lagrange point L1, which for a binary system of two bodies of the exact same mass and which orbit a common barycenter, will be at that barycenter. In any two-body problem, there are always 5 points where gravity "cancels out", those are the Lagrange points. --Jayron32 14:37, 7 September 2022 (UTC)