The Three Body Problem is one of the most promising Netflix projects that the platform has released in recent years. A large-scale science fiction adaptation based on the novels of Cixin Liu, with a complex background and world-building, as well as highly profound characters who must face a large-scale situation: a challenge posed by an alien civilization.
The big question that the series raises is in its title itself: the three-body problem, also known as the three-sun problem. This is an issue where quantum physics comes in, giving both the literary work and the television adaptation another level of difficulty when it comes to following and advancing the plots. A problem that questions the possibility and difficulty of predicting the movement of three bodies in the same orbital system.
“Isaac Newton knew that if you have a system involving two objects (a single planet orbiting a star, for example), then with a little understanding of how gravity works, you can calculate how both will move,” he explained in an interview. for the BBC Chris Lintott, astrophysicist and professor at the University of Oxford. He himself added that the entry of a third object would make it impossible to calculate the movements.
“By including a third object, what is generated is chaos,” he points out. A planet that enters the gravitational system of a star cannot create additional energy to escape, as defined in the law of conservation of energy of the universe. For this reason, the celestial body remains stable in its position until infinity. Despite this, Professor Lintott makes an additional note that comes into full play in the Netflix series.
“But what happens if another star arrives in this system: both stars can generate enough energy to expel the planet or celestial body they are orbiting. With these ingredients, how do we stabilize three gravitational objects or predict what their orbits could be,” he questions. In Cixin Liu's work, the characters interact with the planet San-Ti, which has a three-star solar system.
When San-Ti orbits around a sun, it is in a stable period, but when another comes into play it places it in a gravitational field at the mercy of the three stars, entering a time of chaos. Solving how it works represents an important challenge for scientists and astrophysicists on Earth, since its keys would allow us to discover major aspects of the functioning of the Universe, such as the impact of third objects on black holes.
