ELI5: Sun-Jupiter Barycentre

r/

I still don’t fully understand the nature of the Sun and Jupiter orbiting a common Barycentre.

Take the Earth and the Moon for example. The Moon is roughly 1/100th the mass of the Earth, still a fairly significant percentage, and it even affects our ocean. But the Earth-Moon Barycentre still lies just within Earth’s mantle.

Jupiter, on the other hand, is barely 1/1000th the mass of the Sun, which is pretty pitiful, and it’s also way less dense than the Moon, and slightly less dense than the Sun.

And yet, the Sun-Jupiter Barycentre lies outside the Sun’s surface. Why is this?