Gravity is sort of a big deal. Gravity is
the significant driver of motion for non-powered objects in
space and therefor knowing how the bodies interact via gravity
is essential to understanding the current and future motion of
said bodies. The initial 2-body problem was relatively simple,
but any more introduced many, many variables and
uncertainties. Calculus allowed for a calculation of a number
n bodies, via some sort of monster Taylor series
expression.
[Wiki]
I could not even hope to get into the modern method of simulation, but newer methods employ differential equations which are likely to handle the enormous number of variables that tracking the ever increasing number of bodies floating around in the Sol system we keep finding.
[Wiki]I could not even hope to get into the modern method of simulation, but newer methods employ differential equations which are likely to handle the enormous number of variables that tracking the ever increasing number of bodies floating around in the Sol system we keep finding.