A moon is orbiting Mars, rp is the shortest distance between the moon and its planet and ra is the longest distance between the moon and its planet. What is a moon's orbital eccentricity if rp is equal to .983 and ra is 1016. (1 point) Responses .016 .016 .012 .012 2.01 2.01 .033

1 answer

The formula to calculate eccentricity is given by:

eccentricity (e) = (ra - rp)/(ra + rp)

Substituting the values, we have:

e = (1016 - 0.983)/(1016 + 0.983)
e = 1015.017/1016.983
e ≈ 0.997

Therefore, the moon's orbital eccentricity is approximately 0.997.