Hmm the barycentre is indeed defined by the *average* distance between the two objects. Still, if they are in eleptical orbits the distance to the barycentre can change, if I understand correctly, actually it would have to because the objects move closer to each other, so one or both of them have to get closer to the barycentre. the wiki page on 'center of mass'(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_of_mass )has an animation of two objects orbiting around their barycentre in an eleptical orbit when you scroll down a bit. in this animation the distance between the objects and the barycentre changes. If the radius of one of them had been a bit over twice as large the barycentre would disapear in it for part of each orbit. (I really should do the math, but that scares me a bit actually, I just hope I'm right
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Re: OT: The solar system has 12 planets
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