Stable orbits around binary stars

[ajtribick]

I suspect that the exact locations of stable orbits requires complex simulation and stuff, but are there some "quick-and-dirty" formulae for the outermost stable orbit around one component of a binary star system and the innermost stable orbit around both, given the masses of the two components, separation, eccentricity and stuff like that?

Thanks,

Chaos.

[granthutchison]

The original reference for this stuff is Szebehely's Stability of Planetary Orbits in Binary Systems.
You might also want to look at Holman and Wiegert's Long-term Stability of Planets in Binary Systems. Of course, the existence of stable orbits doesn't imply that planets can actually form in those positions: so Whitmire et al's Habitable Planet Formation in Binary Systems is of interest.

Grant

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

I can certainly vouch for those papers, I've used them to figure out stable orbits myself