Maybe the 4 body problem is unstable.
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-----Original Message-----
From: David Hobby <hob...@newpaltz.edu>
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:03:02
To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion<brin-l@mccmedia.com>
Subject: Re: More Pluto Goofyness . . .
Alberto Monteiro wrote:
> Charlie Bell wrote:
>>> IIRC, Phobos is falling and Deimos is leaving Mars.
>> ...and our moon is leaving too.
>>
> No, it's not. If the Sun didn't explode [*], the Earth-Moon
> system would stabilize in two tidal-locked bodies.
Alberto--
I'd go with "doesn't", but that does make it seem
like not "exploding" is a possibility.
As for why we don't see moons with submoons, it may
just be hard for moons to capture submoons. It must
require a pretty close match of trajectories.
---David
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