I don’t know how would you define ‘influence’.

If I fix the reference point to the (mass?) center of the sun, then observe the moon relative position to the sun, then I see that the influence of the moon’s position is way grater than the Earth’s. Would the Moon fly away from the orbit if the Earth stopped existing?

I knew my argument was flawed, that was somewhat the point. I generally I don’t think many ppl know about the Lagrange points. I know they are used to define what orbits what, but I don’t have the knowledge yet to incorporate to my very flawed wordview.

Also thanks for mentioning the Hill sphere, I looking into that as well.

Not really, that was not my point. Just random thoughts shouted in the clouds. If I have to make a point, then I would say, categorizing things pretty hard, and the general populance understang and the scientific consensus about things are pretty far away.

I know there are some points (L1-5) and they use that to define what orbits what, but I lost when I tried to research it without any pre-existing knowledge on the topic. I usually read some scientific communication, but they usually over simplify things. It’s hard to shed the pre-existing view, replace it with a more correct one, then do it again and again.

But how do we define what orbits what? On the scale from the Sun to Earth, the Moon orbits the Sun, just a litle more wobbly than the Earth’s path, by litle I mean well below the error when we imagine the Erath’s path as an elipse.

We can try to define if something goes around as orbiting, but If I pick two planet from our solar system one will goes around of the other, thechnically orbiting it? We can try to restricting the distance… but that is a problem as well, even worst idea that “nothing” comes in between: multiple moons? What about the moons’ moons?

Ahhh, humans and their need to neatly categorize things…