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You are the science officer on a visit to a distant solar system. Prior to landing on a planet you measure its diameter to be 2...Asked by Me
You are the science officer on a visit to a distant solar system. Prior to landing on a planet you measure its diameter to be 2.070E+7 m and its rotation to be 19.8 hours. You have previously determined that the planet orbits 1.590E+11 m from its star with a period of 368.0 Earth days. Once on the surface you find that the free-fall acceleration is 13.00 m/s2.
What is the mass of the star (in kg)?
I have posted this multiple times and can not figure it out.
What is the mass of the star (in kg)?
I have posted this multiple times and can not figure it out.
Answers
Answered by
drwls
I have answered it once and will not do it again.
http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1322287372
http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1322287372
Answered by
Me
Yes, thank you but as I said, I still can not figure out from what you gave me so maybe someone else will explain better (figuring out the mass of the star that is).
Answered by
drwls
The reference I gave you for Kepler's Third Law did not solve the problem for stars other than the sun. A better reference would be
http://www.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro101/java/Finding%20Exosolar%20Planets.htm
There, you will find the formula.
P^2 = 4 pi^2*r^3/[G*(m1 + m2)]
The author also derives it there.
In your case, ignore the planet's mass m2 because it will be negligible compared to the star's mass, m1.
P is the period, 368 days = 3.18*10^7 s
r is the orbital radius, 1.59*10^11 m.
Look up the value of G and solve for the star's mass m1, in kilograms.
It should be not much different from the sun's mass, because the r and P values you are using are close to those of the Earth orbiting the sun.
http://www.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro101/java/Finding%20Exosolar%20Planets.htm
There, you will find the formula.
P^2 = 4 pi^2*r^3/[G*(m1 + m2)]
The author also derives it there.
In your case, ignore the planet's mass m2 because it will be negligible compared to the star's mass, m1.
P is the period, 368 days = 3.18*10^7 s
r is the orbital radius, 1.59*10^11 m.
Look up the value of G and solve for the star's mass m1, in kilograms.
It should be not much different from the sun's mass, because the r and P values you are using are close to those of the Earth orbiting the sun.
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