skibble t1_irw6r18 wrote on October 11, 2022 at 2:32 PM Reply to comment by greyl in The vast majority of the 150-400 billion stars in the Milky Way haven't been directly detected. Alpha Centauri is the nearest known star to Sol. What is the probability that there are nearer stars that remain undiscovered? by [deleted] I'm confused. AB are a binary, orbiting their center of mass. Proxima is closest to Sol. How is Proxima gravitationally related to AB? If she were orbiting them, wouldn't she sometimes be closest and sometimes be furthest? Permalink Parent 5
skibble t1_irw6r18 wrote
Reply to comment by greyl in The vast majority of the 150-400 billion stars in the Milky Way haven't been directly detected. Alpha Centauri is the nearest known star to Sol. What is the probability that there are nearer stars that remain undiscovered? by [deleted]
I'm confused. AB are a binary, orbiting their center of mass. Proxima is closest to Sol. How is Proxima gravitationally related to AB? If she were orbiting them, wouldn't she sometimes be closest and sometimes be furthest?