Study cracks Newton's 'Three-body' theory problem

Researchers of Hebrew University cracked Newton's elusive 'Three-body' problem and helped scientists achieve a new understanding of the centuries-old Quandary.

After Newton described the way planet Earth revolves around the Sun in its orbit, he assumed that the same laws would help scientists in calculating the result of the addition of a third celestial body. However, the three-body equation led to complexity of the equation.

A study conducted by astrophysicist Dr. Nicholas Stone from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which solves the conundrum was published in the journal Nature.

Stone and other scientists involved in the study used traditional equations of mathematics to solve the problem.

According to the studies that Stone and Nathan Leigh at Chile's La Universidad de Concepcion relied on, the three-body system which is unstable and will eventually expel any one of the three bodies to form a stable binary relation.

"When we compared our predictions to computer-generated models of their actual movements, we found a high degree of accuracy," said Stone.

"Take three black holes that are orbiting one another. Their orbits will necessarily become unstable and even after one of them gets kicked out, we're still very interested in the relationship between the surviving black holes" added Stone.

This ability to predict new orbits is critical to our understanding of how these -- and any three-body problem survivors -- will behave in a new stable situation.