A planet and a moon (odd question)

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soap

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A planet and moon are circling a star. The moon, for whatever reason, starts to pick up mass. This process continues to the point that the planet and moon are of equal mass. At this point, would the planet and moon start circling each other? <br /><br />The moon continues to increase in mass and now is larger than the planet. Would the moon cease circling the planet and would the planet now circle the moon? <br /><br />I realize this scenario would probably cause a collision and we would end up with a large planet, but I would like to put this possibility to the side<br />
 
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soap

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I understand what you are saying except this…<br /><br />“If the two objects are almost equal in size, the center of gravity will be some distance midway between the two.”<br /><br />I might be confusing myself. I remember reading something some times back about two stars that were circling each other because they were so close. Would this be an example of the center of gravity being midway between? <br /><br />I am honestly curious and interested.<br />
 
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mikeemmert

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Hi, soap;<br /><br />I went to wikipedia to find this and there was a stop sign and the words "The factual content of this article is DISPUTED." So I went to "Calculus With Analytical Geometry, Fourth Edition" by Larson, Hofstetler, and Edwards.<br /><br />To find the center of mass along a line x />, multiply the first mass by it's x coordinate (<i>don't forget the minus signs!</i>), or it's distance from the 0 point on the line, multiply the second mass by it's x coodinate, and divide by the total mass of the system. This gives you the coordinate point of the center of mass.<br /><br />A system's <i>moment about the origin</i> of an x-y coordinate system is the sum of the mass times the coordinate of all the objects in the system, i.e. M(sub o) = m1 times x1 + m2 times x2 + m3 times x3, etc. You can do the same thing for for the y axis as you did for the x axis for any number of objects in a plane. Dividing by the total mass of the system gives the x or y coodinate of the center of mass. <br /><br />I don't find this question odd whatsoever or at all.
 
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