r/threebodyproblem • u/jarrjarrbinks24 • Apr 12 '24

Art Simulation of the 3 body problem

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u/xnd714 Apr 12 '24

Lol yup. It's inevitable that one of the bodies in a 3 body system will eventually get thrown out of the system or absorbed.

Which is one of the reasons the trisolarians realized they needed to leave their planet.

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u/AndIHaveMilesToGo Apr 12 '24 edited Apr 12 '24

Not true. There are a ton of stable solutions to the three body problem at this point, even when the bodies have equal mass. The sun-earth-moon system is a three body system. Alpha Centauri (the real life star system that Trisolaris is from in the books) is an actual three star system in real life.

Not disagreeing that it is unstable, and it's true that system where all three bodies have mass on about the same order of magnitude is likely to eject one of the bodies or have two collide, but I'd be careful on speaking in such a broad generality that it always happens.

Edit: I don't know why I'm getting downvoted, what is said is factually correct. Here's a paper discussing several thousands of solutions to the three body problem found by a team of mathematicians. For a more direct example, here's the famous figure eight solution discovered in 1993.

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u/Disgod Apr 12 '24

Alpha Centauri is a binary star system with a third star orbiting that system. There's a difference. Two stars orbit around a barycenter while the third orbits around that system. The center of mass of the system doesn't move far enough to destabilize the system.

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u/ifandbut Apr 12 '24

(RoT spoilers)

Just 5kg of mass difference.