Fabio Pacucci: Newton's three-body problem explained

Newton's three-body problem explained

In 2009, researchers ran a simple experiment. They took everything we know about our solar system and calculated where every planet would be up to 5 billion years in the future. They ran over 2,000 simulations, and the astonishing variety in results revealed  that our solar system may be much less stable than it seems. Fabio Pacucci explores the n-body problem and the motion of gravitating objects. [Directed by Hype CG, narrated by Addison Anderson, music by Gabriel Maia].

Even the tiniest change in Mercury’s orbit can set off cosmic chaos, as researchers discovered when one simulation out of 2,000 sent planets colliding after billions of years. The n-body problem reveals that predicting the motion of three or more gravitating bodies is impossible to solve with a single formula. Instead, their behavior is wildly sensitive to initial conditions and can lead to unexpected, even catastrophic, outcomes. Powerful computer simulations help us navigate this unpredictability and maintain confidence in the solar system’s stability for now.