Celestial mechanics Memes

Physics students start out all bright-eyed and optimistic when facing the two-body problem, which has neat analytical solutions. Then they encounter the three-body problem and transform into muscular, traumatized versions of themselves. The three-body problem is notoriously unsolvable in closed form and requires numerical approximations that make you question your career choices. Graduate students have been found sobbing in computer labs trying to simulate it since 1887.

The cosmic facepalm moment every aspiring time traveler needs to know about! Our solar system isn't just sitting still—it's zooming through space at a mind-boggling 828,000 km/h around the galactic center. Meanwhile, Earth orbits the Sun at 107,000 km/h and rotates at 1,670 km/h at the equator. So that dinosaur-watching trip you planned to the Jurassic? You'd materialize in empty space where Earth was 150 million years ago, not where it is now. The frozen expression perfectly captures that split-second realization that you forgot to program your time machine with celestial mechanics equations. Next time, remember: it's not just when you're going, but where that "when" will physically be located in our ever-moving universe!

Rookie time travel mistake #247: forgetting that Earth is zooming through space at 67,000 mph while also spinning like a cosmic fidget spinner! Your time machine nailed the "when" but completely whiffed on the "where." Now you're just floating in the void where Earth used to be, contemplating your life choices and the fundamental flaw in your space-time coordinates algorithm. Next time, maybe program in some celestial GPS? That's why the first rule of time travel is always "account for planetary motion" or end up as the universe's loneliest astronaut!