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N-body problem

The N-body problem refers to the challenge of predicting the motion of a group of celestial bodies (like planets, stars, or galaxies) under the influence of their mutual gravitational attraction. When you have just two bodies, like the Earth and the Sun, you can calculate their paths relatively easily. However, as you add more bodies, the interactions become incredibly complex and chaotic. Because of this complexity, it's often impossible to find exact solutions as the number of bodies increases, making N-body simulations a key tool in astrophysics for understanding how these systems evolve over time.

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  • Image for N-body problem

    The N-body problem refers to the challenge of predicting the movements of multiple celestial bodies, like planets or stars, as they interact with each other through gravity. Each body affects the others' orbits in complex ways, making it difficult to calculate their future positions accurately. While we can easily solve for two bodies (like the Earth and the Moon), adding more bodies increases the complexity exponentially. As a result, precise solutions are often unattainable, so scientists use numerical simulations and approximations to study the dynamics of systems with three or more bodies, such as galaxies or star clusters.