Definition of a binary planet

[Vachtra]

If two bodies are not in contact they are not orbiting There's nothing magical about the strong and electroweak forces that they can exchange energy while gravity cannot.

The opposite is actually true. If two bodie are in contact then they are not orbiting, they are coliding. The very definition of orbit makes that clear
a: a path described by one body in its revolution about another
The word comes from the latin for rut or track giving the sense of a perscribed and constant pattern around something, not to something.
If they touch then the orbit is gone. They are no longer orbiting.

[Atarlost]

Your definition of contact is flawed.

To be in contact is to be interacting. You are limiting your definition of contact to the electromagnetic force, but that is an arbitrary limitation of a language that predates the modern understanding of what a force is.

[Vachtra]

There has to be relative physical contact for energy to transfer from one object to another. One of the biggest problems in the space station is what to do with all that heat since there is no natural system in place for the heat to cycle.

By your definition I am in contact with every other particle in the universe, however slight that contact may be. At what arbitrary point do you conceed that limit to stop. If there is no limit then the very word contact looses all meaning and we might as well say that if an object exists then it transfers energy to everything else existing.

[digdug]

By your definition I am in contact with every other particle in the universe, however slight that contact may be. At what arbitrary point do you conceed that limit to stop. If there is no limit then the very word contact looses all meaning and we might as well say that if an object exists then it transfers energy to everything else existing.

yep, that's correct.

Laws of thermodynamics rulez.

[Vachtra]

I've been looking over thermodynmics again looking for what you two are on about.
So far I don't find anything linking gravitational attraction to the exchange of energy between two objects. While there is energy being transfered in the solar system by other means, gravity isn't one of them.
What gravity does do in an orbit is transfer kenetic energy to static energy and back again but the total energy of the object orbiting doesn't change.
If you can tell me what laws you believe are in play and why you think these laws are being applied then we might get somewhere.

I suggest we break it down to two single atoms orbiting each other at a great distance with an eliptical orbit. If there is a transfer of energy in this case then it can be applied to any two bodies orbiting each other. If not then we would need to question why.

Edit: To quote a well known source, "Your silence is very reassuring."