Moons in Binary Orbit

Writing a werewolf story, and decided for a bit of flair, so I wanted two moons in orbit. Did a bit of digging, and I found out that to do that, I'd need to either have them in separate orbit (no thanks, I like calendar math, but that's the irritating kind, not the fun kind) or to have them in an L4/L5 position. Didn't like that either. So I dug a bit more.

Then I found binary star systems. Yes, I'm aware that this exact question has been asked. Except, it kind of wasn't. See, the answers seem to going towards where the moons were orbiting at each other's L3 point. That's not how a binary star system works. (Watch the video, it's cool.)

Instead, the stars share one of their foci, and kind of orbit around each other, given that. So, would it be possible to replicate this on a planet, having moons that share a foci on the Earth, and opposite orbit patterns. So, while it would appear from the planet that there are two moons in the same orbit, perfectly opposite each other, in actuality it'd be different. Something like this:

(You'll probably need a guide to the picture, given that my talent is more scientific than artistic. The big yellow one is the sun, the green one is the planet, grey is moon, white is approximate orbit. And because I need the obligatory joke, 'Dammit Jim, I'm a scientist, not an artist'.)

The question is, would this work?

A note: For calculations, assume the planet is the size of Earth, or of a habitable nature, so 6x10²⁴ kg. The moons must be visible, so assume around 10²² kg. The solar system is a single star, and the other planets are a single gas giant deep into the system and an asteroid belt beyond that.

posted almost 5 years ago

Halfthawed‭

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