AST251H1 Final: AST251 - Finals Notes

248 views42 pages

magentaduck547

2 May 2012

School

UTSG

Department

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Course

AST251H1

Professor

H.Pfeiffer

For unlimited access to Study Guides, a Grade+ subscription is required.

Document Summary

If life is eventually found in the solar system, it would most likely be in the form of microbes. Astronomy has shown us that the fundamental laws of physics are the same everywhere in the universe. The ptolemaic model has planets moving in small circles, the centers of which move in a larger circle about the earth. Stellar parallax is the apparent shift in position of nearby stars as the earth moves around the sun. What is the relationship between newton"s three laws and kepler"s three laws: newton"s laws are general and apply to any motion, while kepler"s laws apply only to planetary motion in the solar system. However, one comet is four times farther from the sun than the other. According to newton"s universal law of gravitation, the force of gravity exerted by the sun on the more distant planet is one-sixteenth (1/16) the size of the force exerted on the closer comet.

Related Questions

4) According to the ancient Greeks, the Earth was the center ofthe universe and the sun, moon, stars, and planets all went aroundthe Earth. In the 1543 Copernicus proposed the heliocentric theoryof the universe in which the Earth was just another planet orbitingthe Sun and only the moon orbited the Earth.

a) What is the speed at which the Moon goes around the Earth?
b) How does the Moon's orbital acceleration compare to theacceleration of objects near the surface of the Earth?
c) What is the magnitude of the force that the Earth's gravityexerts on the Moon to keep it in orbit?
d) According to Newton's third law, all forces occur in pairs. Whatis the reaction to the Earth's gravity on the moon? Explain.

Kepler's third law states that a planet's orbital period, p, isrelated to its average (semimajor axis) orbital distance, a,according to the mathematical relationship p^{2} = a^{3}. Which ofthe following statements describe a characteristic of the solarsystem that is explained by Kepler's third law?

a) Venus orbits the Sun faster than Earth orbits the Sun.
b) Inner planets orbit the Sun at higher speed thanouterplanets
c) The Sun is located slightly off-center from the middle ofeachplanet's orbit.
d) All the planets orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane
e) Earth is slightly closer to the Sun on one side of itsorbit thanon the other side
f) Pluto moves faster when it is closer to the Sun thanwhen it isfarther from the Sun

______________________________________________________________________________
2)Kepler's third law states that a planet's orbital period,p, isrelated to its average (semimajor axis) orbitaldistance, a,according to the mathematical relationshipp^{2} = a^{3}. Which ofthefollowing statements describe a characteristic of the solarsystemthat is explained by Kepler's third law?

Check all that apply

a) Venus orbits the Sun faster than Earth orbits the Sun.
b) Inner planets orbit the Sun at higher speed thanouterplanets
c) The Sun is located slightly off-center from the middle ofeachplanet's orbit.
d) All the planets orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane
e) Earth is slightly closer to the Sun on one side of itsorbit thanon the other side
f) Pluto moves faster when it is closer to the Sun thanwhen it isfarther from the Sun

A comet moves about the Sun in an elliptical orbit, with its closest approach to the Sun being about 0.630 AU and its greatest distance from the sun being 39.0 AU (1 AU = the Earth-Sun distance). If the comet's speed at closest approach is 54.0 km/s, what is its speed when it is farthest from the Sun? (The gravitational force exerted by the Sun on the comet is parallel to the moment arm, so exerts no torque. Therefore, angular momentum of the comet around the Sun is conserved.)

AST251H1 Final: AST251 - Finals Notes

Document Summary

Get access

Related Documents

AST251H1 Final: AST 251 - Exam Notes (comprehensive notes for the course)

AST251H1 Lecture : lecture note

AST251H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Exoplanet, Methods Of Detecting Exoplanets, Menat

Related Questions