three body problem
Up until now, scientists could only predict what happens in a three-body system by using computer simulations. When simulating the three-body problem, they found two phases occur.
First, a chaotic phase occurs when all three bodies pull on each other violently, until one star is ejected far from the others, yet still on a bound orbit. In the second phase, one of the stars escapes on an unbound orbit, never to return.
Prof. Hagai Perets and PhD student Barry Ginat of the Technion found a way to calculate a statistical solution to the random two-phase process |