http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/03/09/1846253/physicists-discover-13-ne... Posted by <http://unknownlamer.org/>Unknown Lamer on Saturday March 09, @02:33PM from the mystical-spheres dept. sciencehabit writes "It's the sort of abstract puzzle that keeps a scientist awake at night: Can you predict how three objects will orbit each other in a repeating pattern? In the 300 years since this '<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-body_problem>three-body problem' was first recognized, just three families of solutions have been found. Now, <http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/03/physicists-discover-a-whopping.html>two physicists have discovered 13 new families. It's quite a feat in mathematical physics, and it could conceivably help astrophysicists understand new planetary systems." The <http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.0181>paper is available at arxiv. --- co-chair http://ocjug.org/