this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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Does the sun actually travel in a straight line, or do the orbits of the planets wobble it, and to what extent?
Everything in the solar system (even the Son) orbit around the center of mass of everything in the solar system. This epicenter is just outside of the Son, on the side that Jupiter is. So the Son wobbles by a little bit more than 1 of its radii.
Sun, I am disappoint.
*Sometimes. The other planets can counterbalance Jupiter's effect on the barycenter to pull it back into the surface of the Sun.
Also, it's Sun, not Son
That's the word I couldn't remember.
Yeah, I don't know how I messed that up 3 times. I think my brain was stuck between calling it the Sun and Sol. Also the mama and son/sun puns in this thread.
I am under the impression that straight lines don't really exist in the Universe.
They don't. There is new research where the universe is constantly expanding, while we are traveling in an orbit around the sun, the universe is exponentially expanding, growing outward kinda like a reversed funnel.
More like outward from the center of a sphere
Juipiter's orbit wobbles it, as others said, the barycenter of the system is outside the sun's radius, but the scale of the planets vs their orbits is so great such a small wobble is imperceptable if you can see multiple orbits.
I think the graph shows relative position of the planets from the sun, so the straight line is just a baseline.
Like if you jump up and down on a plane, and the graph just shows you moving a couple of feet up and down rather than including the entire altitude change of the plane itself
Yeah - you’re onto it. Relative to what?