WHY WE NEED COMPUTER MODELS

There’s no simple solution to the interaction of three or more bodies

The motion of one body orbiting another, such as a lone planet around a star, has an exact mathematical solution. But that’s not true if other gravitational effects are involved, such as the influence of Jupiter on the orbit of an asteroid. A few stable solutions can be found algebraically, such as the existence of the ‘trojan points’ in the orbit of Jupiter itself, but more general solutions require computer modelling on a case-by-case basis. These solutions are not always stable – they may change slowly over the course of many orbits. For example, Jupiter can disturb the orbit of an asteroid that initially comes nowhere near an inner planet into one that poses a collision threat to it.…

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All About Space Annual (Digital) - 1 Issue, All About Space Annual (2024)

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