When three massive objects meet in space, they influence each other through gravity in ways that evolve unpredictably. In a word: Chaos. That is the conventional understanding. Now, a researcher from the University of Copenhagen has discovered that such encounters often avoid chaos and instead follow regular patterns, where one of the objects is quickly expelled from the system. This new insight may prove vital for our understanding of gravitational waves and many other aspects of the universe.
  • @solrize@lemmy.world
    19•7 months ago

    I thought this type of thing was well known in chaotic dynamics. There must be a new discovery here, but the phys.org article is not much help in explaining what it is.

  • @fcuks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5•7 months ago

    I couldn’t find details on this so I would love if anyone has any insight or thoughts, but I’m wondering if these patterns could be from the simulation and computational limitations around generating true ‘random’ numbers (used in the simulation coordinates, vectors, velocities etc) ?