Science News, September 5th, 1998
The force of gravity governs the motion of planets, asteroids, and other bodies in the solar system. Predicting their orbits requires solving equations representing the gravitational attraction between interacting masses.
Now, a mathematician has discovered a new set of approximate solutions of those equations. Each solution corresponds to a string of equally spaced masses--like the beads of a necklace--chasing each other around a closed loop at just the right speed.
Although the solar system is unlikely to harbor such behavior, it may occur among filaments and vortices in a plasma of huge...
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