Jupiter , the 5th planet from the sunshine , gas titan , and subject of the Juno deputation , is huge . Huge .

It ’s so immense , in fact , that it does n’t in reality revolve the sun . Not exactly . With 2.5 prison term the mass of all the other planet in the solar organization combined , it ’s big enough that the center of gravity between Jupiter and the Lord’s Day does n’t in reality domicile inside the sun — rather , at a point in place just above the sun ’s aerofoil .

Here ’s how that works .

When a small object orbits a big aim in place , the less massive one does n’t really jaunt in a perfect circle around the tumid one . Rather , both objects orbit a immix center of gravity .

In situations we ’re intimate with — like Earth orbiting the much - orotund sunshine — the core of gravitation resides so near to the shopping mall of the larger object that the impact of this phenomenon is trifling . The bragging aim does n’t seem to move , and the smaller one drag a traffic circle around it .

But reality is always more complicated .

For example : When the International Space Station ( ISS ) orb the Earth , both the Earth and the space station orbit their flux center of gravity . But that inwardness of gravity is so absurdly close to the center of the Earth that the planet ’s motion around the point is impossible to descry — and the ISS identify a near - arrant lap around the whole planet .

The same truth holds when most planet orb the sun . Sol is just so much larger than Earth , Venus , Mercury , or even Saturn that their centers of great deal with the sunlight all lie deep within the star itself .

Not so with Jupiter .

The gas giant is so big that its center of masses with the sun , or barycenter , actually lie 1.07 solar radii from the centre of the sun — or 7 % of a sun - radius above the sun ’s surface . Both the Sun and Jupiter orbit around that decimal point in outer space .

This not - to - scale gif from NASA exemplify the event :

That is , in essence , how Jupiter and the Sunday move through space together — though the aloofness and sizes are far different . Jupiter is still only a fraction of the sun ’s size .

But next fourth dimension someone asks you for a crazy space fact you ’ll know : Jupiter is so massive , it does n’t revolve the sunshine .