Abstract
When going from two bodies to three, or more, bodies, the complexity increases significantly, due to their mutual attractions. The two-body problem can be mathematically formulated so a closed-form solution is possible. With more than two bodies, it is impossible to formulate such a solution. There are some special cases, however, that can be handled.
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References
Danby, J.: Fundamentals of Celestial Mechanics. The Macmillan Company, New York (1962)
McCuskey, S.W.: Introduction to Celestial Mechanics. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1963)
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© 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Gurfil, P., Seidelmann, P.K. (2016). The n-Body Problem. In: Celestial Mechanics and Astrodynamics: Theory and Practice. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 436. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-50370-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-50370-6_7
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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Online ISBN: 978-3-662-50370-6
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