New research finds that planetary orbits could be both chaotic and stable, which raises the possibility of “chaotic earths” with extreme seasons.
Butterfly Effect
Chaos theory is often expressed by the butterfly effect. Stated simply, the butterfly effect is the idea that the flutter of a butterfly’s wings in China can cause a chain of effects that results in a hurricane striking Florida. It is a representation of a non-linear system, where a small event can trigger a much larger one.
Order and Chaos
How do you deal with chaos in computational astrophysics? It turns out there are ways to analyze the properties of a solution even if you don’t know what the exact solution is.
Close Encounters
Just how stable is the solar system against close encounters with stray planets? Pretty stable, and we can show that with a bit of computational physics.