alt Hacker NewsIt’s my understanding that most 3-body orbits are unstable; minor random perturbations will set them adrift.
Are there any 3-body orbits with a natural resonance that maintains the shape of the orbits?
If so, how large of a disturbance can the most-stable 3-body orbit withstand?
Replies
cobbzilla • today at 4:47 PM
further research indicates some do exist:
- equilateral triangle is the simple case
- some figure eight configurations
- some configurations that act like two nested binary systems
there might be others. fascinating stuff.
A few that I looked at are annotated, "It is linearly stable (largest Floquet multiplier 1.000), so a small nudge only makes it wobble." Doesn't define "small nudge", alas...